Michael Pollen, bestselling author of books on plant pharmacology explains why a very strong case can be made that caffeine contributed to the enlightenment and the age of reason and the industrial revolution, all of which required us to think in much more focused linear terms.

植物藥理學書籍的暢銷作者邁克爾-波倫解釋說，為什麼有一個非常有力的理由可以證明咖啡因促成了啟蒙運動和理性時代以及工業革命，所有這些都要求我們以更集中的線性方式思考。

Caffeine was an amazing aid to the rise of capitalism compared to other beverages.

與其他飲料相比，咖啡因對資本主義的崛起是一個驚人的幫助。

Coffee is a relative newcomer, spreading slowly from africa through the Middle East and into the west only a few centuries ago.

咖啡是一個相對較新的事物，在幾個世紀前才從非洲緩慢地傳播到中東並進入西方。

Yet it's hard to even imagine a world without it.

然而，我們甚至很難想象一個沒有它的世界。

Before caffeine comes to europe, people were drunk or buzzed most of the day, people would have alcohol with breakfast, water was contaminated with disease, but alcohol, because of the fermentation process would kill a lot of microbes.

在咖啡因傳入歐洲之前，人們一天中大部分時間都在喝酒或打瞌睡，人們會在早餐時喝酒，水被疾病汙染，但酒精，因為發酵過程會殺死很多微生物。

So you gave your kids hard cider in the morning, there were beer breaks on farms.

所以你在早上給你的孩子喝硬蘋果酒，農場裡有啤酒休息。

People addled on alcohol are not going to be so rational, are not going to be so linear in their thinking and are not going to be so energetic.

酒精上癮的人不會那麼理性，不會那麼線性地思考，也不會那麼精力充沛。

Coffee consumption along with tea and chocolate, all of which have caffeine became widespread in Europe in the 17th century.

咖啡與茶和巧克力一起消費，所有這些都有咖啡因，17世紀時在歐洲開始廣泛流行。

And coffee houses popped up all over London.

而咖啡館在倫敦各地湧現。

So there were coffee houses dedicated to literature and writers and poets would congregate there, there was a coffee house dedicated to selling stock and that turned into the London stock exchange.

是以，有專門從事文學創作的咖啡館，作家和詩人會聚集在那裡，有一個專門出售股票的咖啡館，這變成了倫敦的證券交易所。

Eventually there was another one dedicated to science tied to the royal institution where great scientists of the period would get together.

最終，還有一個專門討論科學的機構與皇家機構聯繫在一起，當時的偉大科學家會在這裡聚會。

And Isaac.

還有艾薩克。

Newton was a big coffee fan, Voltaire.

牛頓是個大咖啡迷，伏爾泰。

The enlightenment figure apparently had 72 cups a day.

這位啟蒙人物顯然每天喝72杯。

I don't know quite how you do that.

我不太知道你是怎麼做到的。

Deodoro wrote the encyclopedia on caffeine.

迪奧多羅寫了關於咖啡因的百科全書。

This new sober, more civil drink was changing the way people thought and the way they worked.

這種新的清醒的、更文明的飲料正在改變人們的思維方式和工作方式。

Once you're doing work with machinery, indoors, doing double entry bookkeeping and all that kind of head work, alcohol is the wrong drug and caffeine is the right drug caffeine allows you also to break your ties to the rhythms of the sun before caffeine basically, people started work when the sun came up and stopped when it went down with caffeine and with light or gas light you could have a night shift, you can have an overnight shift.

一旦你從事與機器有關的工作，在室內，做複式記賬和所有這些頭部工作，酒精是錯誤的藥物，而咖啡因是正確的藥物咖啡因還允許你打破你與太陽節奏的聯繫，在咖啡因之前，人們在太陽昇起時開始工作，在太陽下山時停止，有了咖啡因，有了燈光或煤氣燈，你可以有一個夜班，你可以有一個夜班。

It's not hard to see a through line from coffee cup workers keeping up with the pace of the machines in the factories To the rise of office culture and the establishment of the coffee break in the 1950s, Caffeine has made a super productive.

不難看出，從咖啡杯工人跟上工廠裡機器的步伐到辦公室文化的興起和20世紀50年代咖啡休息時間的建立，咖啡因已經取得了超級的生產力。

There's a very interesting body of research that suggests that caffeine does improve focus and memory and the ability to learn.

有一個非常有趣的研究表明，咖啡因確實可以提高注意力和記憶力以及學習能力。

So it seems to help us lock in memories as for focus, it increases our ability to concentrate on a task.

是以，它似乎可以幫助我們鎖定記憶，至於注意力，它可以提高我們集中精力完成一項任務的能力。

It's incredibly important for modern work and of course caffeine also gives us a burst of energy, but how exactly coffee has less than five calories, caffeine seems to be in violation of the laws of thermodynamics, essentially caffeine borrows energy from your future and gives it to you.

這對現代工作來說是無比重要的，當然咖啡因也給我們帶來了能量的爆發，但究竟咖啡的熱量不到5卡，咖啡因似乎違反了熱力學定律，本質上咖啡因從你的未來借來能量，並給你帶來能量。

In the present caffeine occupies a receptor that normally is occupied by a chemical called edina seen.

在目前，咖啡因佔據了一個受體，而這個受體通常被一種叫做艾迪那見的化學物質佔據。

And this is the chemical that over the course of the day builds up and makes you feel tired and prepares the brain for sleep.

而這是在一天中積累起來的化學物質，使你感到疲憊，併為大腦的睡眠做準備。

Caffeine gets in there and blocks that receptor.

咖啡因進入那裡並阻斷該受體。

So you never feel that tiredness and that's the catch caffeine messes with your sleep because 4 to 6 hours after you drink it, half of it is still swirling around in your body.

所以你永遠不會感到疲倦，這就是咖啡因擾亂你的睡眠的原因，因為在你喝下它的4到6個小時後，它的一半仍然在你的身體裡打轉。

But even if you cut it out earlier in the day, the quality of your sleep may suffer.

但即使你在一天的早些時候把它切掉，你的睡眠品質也可能受到影響。

Not the quantity necessarily, but the quality by which, I mean, you are deep sleep, your slow wave sleep a kind of sleep that's dreamless and very deep.

不一定是數量，而是品質，我的意思是，你是深度睡眠，你的慢波睡眠是一種無夢的睡眠，而且非常深。

And it's very important to kind of brain hygiene.

而這對大腦衛生非常重要。

It's where your brain kind of takes out the garbage every night and cleans up the desktop.

這是你的大腦每天晚上取出垃圾並清理桌面的地方。

And that kind of sleep suffers.

而這種睡眠會受到影響。

There's no free lunch right in nature and in medicine, so is the price we pay for poor sleep worth the benefits that caffeine gives us.

自然界和醫學界都沒有免費的午餐，所以我們為睡眠不佳付出的代價是否值得咖啡因給我們帶來的好處。

There have been decades of research into caffeine.

對咖啡因的研究已經有幾十年了。

The current research is that on balance, it contributes much more to your health than it takes away and that it's protective against many kinds of cancer cardiovascular disease.

目前的研究表明，總的來說，它對你的健康的貢獻遠遠大於它所帶來的損失，它對許多種類的癌症心血管疾病有保護作用。

Parkinson's dementia in the american diet.

美國人飲食中的帕金森痴呆症。

Coffee and tea represents the single biggest source of anti oxidants And antioxidants are very important to cellular health and preventing cancer.

咖啡和茶是抗氧化劑的最大來源，而抗氧化劑對細胞健康和預防癌症非常重要。

And we eat so few plants, so few vegetables and fruit in this country that we're getting most of those antioxidants from coffee and tea.

在這個國家，我們吃的植物太少，蔬菜和水果太少，以至於我們從咖啡和茶中獲得了大部分的抗氧化劑。

It's kind of remarkable that it has such a clean bill of health.

它有如此乾淨的健康證明，這有點了不起。

With that one exception of what it does to your sleep or what it can do to your sleep, right, caffeine ruins our sleep so that the next morning we reach for more caffeine and the cycle of addiction continues.

咖啡因破壞了我們的睡眠，所以第二天早上我們會去找更多的咖啡因，然後繼續循環上癮。

You know, we tend to moralize addiction.

你知道，我們傾向於將成癮問題道德化。

But is it really a bad thing to be dependent on a plant that you have easy access to you can afford that isn't ruining your life and is giving you some benefit.

但是，依賴一種你容易獲得的、你能負擔得起的、不破壞你的生活並給你帶來一些好處的植物，真的是一件壞事嗎？

The way in which individuals are addicted to caffeine is mirrored in our society.

個人對咖啡因成癮的方式在我們的社會中得到了反映。

We have organized our society in such a way with like globe spanning trade, working long hours and changing the climate and changing the environment.

我們以這樣的方式組織我們的社會，像跨越全球的貿易，長時間工作，改變氣候，改變環境。

We have created a world in which caffeine is indispensable and therefore the coffee plant and the tea plant are indispensable and we've created exactly the world they need in which to thrive.

我們創造了一個咖啡因不可或缺的世界，是以咖啡植物和茶葉植物也是不可或缺的，我們正好創造了它們需要的世界，在其中茁壯成長。