Caffeinated Cities

Seattle lives up to its reputation as the city that consumes the most coffee, followed by Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Tampa. This is according to HealthSaver 2008 Caffeinated Cities Survey, which conducted phone interviews with more than 2,000 people across the U.S. to determine caffeine consumption, including coffee, tea, sodas, energy drinks, chocolate, pain relievers and caffeine pills.

Tampa was rated the most caffeinated city overall, according to the poll, followed by Seattle, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. The least caffeinated cities are Riverside/San Bernardino, followed closely by Atlanta, San Diego, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Dallas.

Other interesting findings:
• Most Tea Consumption: New York, followed by Tampa, Baltimore, Boston and Atlanta.
• Most Chocolate Consumption: Seattle, Phoenix, Chicago, Detroit and Boston.
• Most Energy Drink Consumption: Atlanta, Riverside/San Bernardino, Tampa, Seattle and San Diego.

Some good news for the highly caffeinated is that coffee and tea have emerged as sources that can lower the risk of diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson's disease, colon cancer and cirrhosis of the liver.--Denise Shoukas

Denise Shoukas is a regular foodspring.com contributor and is the author of foodspring’s food forager blog.