Out of all the questions customers asked me, when I owned my health food store, the most frequent was, “What can I take to increase my energy?”

Before answering that question, I usually asked a few of my own, such as: “Do you feel a persistent, daily lack of energy or is there some stress in your life like lack of sleep that’s causing fatigue?” “Do you exercise?” “What is your diet like?” “Do you have a sweet-tooth?” “How much protein do you eat daily, on average?”

I asked all these questions, not to make my customers feel like they were being cross-examined, but to get a good background “read” on their daily life and habits, before I suggested any “energy-enhancing” supplements. Some people, for instance, never realize they are chronically sleep-deprived until someone tells them, “No… six hours of sleep is not enough. Shoot for seven to eight and see how you feel then.” Others might volunteer that they were on this or that medication, which might preclude the use of stimulants or other herbs.

After walking the customer through my mental check-list of “energy thieves” the discussion usually drifted into which specific herbs and/or supplements they might want to try for boosting energy levels.

First item on the energy-agenda was always caffeine.

Did they drink coffee, tea, or sodas every day? 95% of the time the answer was “Yes.” Not surprising, considering 80% to 90% of the entire population of the Earth uses caffeine in one form or another. In Asia and parts of Europe, tea is favored, while in parts of South America it’s the herb mate*. Here of course in the US, it’s coffee.

I had a professor in college once who argued strongly that caffeine is no longer just a handy stimulant with which to wake up in the morning, it’s almost a vitamin. He had a point, considering how large the percentage using caffeine daily and how, to a degree, it does seem to improve the quality of life, or at least improve one’s motivation for getting out of bed every morning.