卡莉.薇茵曼 寫于  2011 年10月29日   早晨八點

Many of us are addicted to coffee for reasons that go beyond aroma and taste, whether we're willing to admit it or not. Consider this:   

許多人喜歡喝咖啡不是因為迷戀它的香味和口感，不管你是否愿意接受這種說法。其實是：

The caffeine in coffee taps into the brain's dopamine stores, mimicking the euphoric effects commonly associated with harder drugs like cocaine and ecstasy.

咖啡中的咖啡因能作用于大腦增加了多巴胺的含量，其作用原理與可卡因和興奮劑類似。

And if that's not enough to convince you of the drink's powerful effect, know that coffee activates a system in our brains that secretes marijuana-like chemicals that control, among feelings of hunger and feeding, levels of happiness and euphoria.

如果這還不足以讓你相信這家伙的威力，那么讓我告訴你，咖啡會刺激大腦分泌類似大麻的化學物質，這種物質可以控制人的饑餓感，食欲和快感。

These reasons, offered up by Dr. Gary L. Wenk, a neuroscience professor at Ohio State University, in a post at Psychology Today, help explain why 38% of workers say they couldn't live without coffee.

以上是由俄亥俄大學神經系統(tǒng)科學教授加里. 溫克博士發(fā)表在《今日心理學》上的，這讓我們理解了為什么38%的上班族離不開咖啡。

And while coffee's caffeine is not remotely as damaging to us as hard drugs, it does alter how our bodies work. Wenk explains:

盡管咖啡里的咖啡因不會象毒品那樣有害身體，但是它的確能改變身體的工作機能。溫克解釋道：

When you first started drinking coffee, the arousal was all you wanted and also all that you got.  Still, being more attentive and vigilant was all you needed to get through the day. As you continued drinking coffee your liver compensated for the additional chemicals in your diet by becoming more efficient at metabolizing the caffeine. Your brain also made some adjustments. Ultimately, you needed more and more coffee each day to achieve the same level of arousal and vigilance.

當你剛開始喝咖啡，你只是想提一下神，它也確實能起到提神的作用。所有你需要做就是保持更高的警覺性，注意力更集中地度過這一天。如果你繼續(xù)喝咖啡，肝臟就會更快地代謝咖啡因來補償食物中多余的化學成分。大腦也會做出調整。最終，你每天需要越來越多的咖啡來達到平時的工作專注水平。

"Coffee makes us feel so good because it is able to tap into virtually every reward system our brain has evolved," Wenk writes. When it comes down to it, coffee certainly isn't going to kill you. Plus, it's a cheap and easy way to boost workers' performance and office morale.

"喝咖啡使人感覺很好是因為它能刺激大腦已進化的每一個獎賞系統(tǒng)" 溫克寫道，當然，歸根結底喝咖啡不會致命。而且，還是一種實惠方便的方法來提高工作效率，鼓舞辦公室士氣。