IN PRAISE OF CAFFEINE

There’s more to a cup of coffee than just an early morning pick-me-up

- MICHAEL MOSLEY

As I stagger out of bed in the mornings and begin my ritual of resistance exercises (press-ups, squats, sit-ups and the dreaded plank) the one thing that keeps me going is the promise of a lovely cup of tea when I get downstairs. After my first cup I take the dog for a walk, soak up the sunshine, then sip my first coffee of the morning, normally drunk black.

Apart from the flavour, what I love about tea and coffee is that they’re stimulants, rich with the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive drug, caffeine. A white, crystalline powder, it’s produced by plants to protect them against insect attack.