Author: Modern Athlete

Finishing 13th at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and only missing the final by one position established Rynardt van Rensburg as one of the world’s top 800m runners, so missing out on selection for SA’s 2017 World Champs team was a massive disappointment, but the man from the Free State is ready to try again. – BY REGGIE HUFKIE

The 2017 IAAF World Championships in London marked Team South Africa’s most successful champs, with six medals, but the lead-up to the meet left a bitter taste as many athletes had to deal with a controversial ASA selection policy that saw a number of athletes who had qualified according to IAAF standards left at home. One of those left out of the team was University of Free State student Rynardt van Rensburg, who had won the SA Champs title for the first time earlier this year and run a season’s best of 1:45.73, thus meeting the IAAF standard of 1:45.90, but not good enough to meet the ASA standard of 1:44.84.

“At the 2016 Olympic Games I finished 13th in the world, and my goal was to make the final at the 2017 London World Champs. My drive, my motivation, my planning, training and everything was towards London. Not being able to compete at the World Champs broke my heart. I ran 1:45.73, which was faster than my time heading into Rio!” says Rynardt. “The fact is that I train to peak at championship events, as I did in 2016. It’s a pity, but I have to accept it and move forward.”

Time for Plan B
In spite of the disappointment over London, Rynardt decided to focus on the Summer Universiade (World Student Games) in Taipei, also in August, but then another blow followed… “I picked up a hamstring tendon injury just three weeks before the World Student Games, and it was worse than what we initially thought.” He was advised to sit out the Games, but after the disappointment of London, he says he simply couldn’t turn down the opportunity to represent his country.

“I believe in chances, giving people a shot. We athletes work extremely hard in order to be amongst the best in the world, and we do not get paid well at all, and the day you take away the opportunities to compete, is the day you will see a lot of talent giving up. I am not ready to give up.” That spirit saw him go to Taipei, do enough to finish third in a tactical first round heat, clocking 1:55.00 and automatically qualifying for the semi-final round, where he won his heat in 1:48.97. However, his legs simply didn’t have enough power in the final, due to the injury, and he finished a disappointed eighth in 1:49.70.

“Things did not turn out the way I planned or the way I wanted them to, but I’m thankful for every opportunity and I will surely rise again. It was my first year as the South African Champion and I still managed a 1:45.73, which shows we did things right. It was also my third year ending as the fastest 800m athlete in South Africa, and I’m grateful for all the small victories, in spite of the big disappointments this season. 2018 will be another year, with new opportunities.”

Back to the Drawing Board
Currently on a strict rehabilitation programme, Rynardt believes he will bounce back in time for the start of the 2018 season. “Due to the injury, my training will only start at the end of November, but if I can get in shape early, I will attempt two or three indoor races in February in order to attempt to qualify for the World Indoor Champs. However, my main goal is to defend my SA title, and then I would like to have a chance at the Commonwealth Games. Once again my hopes will be on ASA and SASCOC to select me after December into the preliminary team for the Games.”

Meanwhile, the Kovsies student has decided to put his B.Sc. Psychology degree on hold and focus on his secondary studies. “I’ve been doing two or three modules of Marketing as well, and in order to focus as much as I can on my Athletics, I will first finish Marketing in 2018 and then I hope to finish my other degree after that.” In between that, he will still make time for other interests. “I do part-time work as a photographer for Spektor in Bloemfontein. I have a massive passion for photography and I love capturing sport photos, plus I also write training programmes and coach.”

Coaching youngsters also ties in with Rynardt’s passion for the sport: “I believe athletics can become as popular as rugby and football if we can get some powerful people to join the sport. And selecting as many athletes as possible to be seen competing on TV on the big stages like the World Champs and Olympics will also help grow the popularity of the sport.”

Images: Courtesy Rynardt van Rensburg

Many of us drink alcohol to have fun, relax and be social, especially during the December holidays, but here’s how it affects your health and your waistline. – BY CHRISTINE PETERS, REGISTERED DIETICIAN

Under normal conditions, your body gets its energy from the calories in carbohydrates, fats and proteins, which are slowly digested and absorbed within the gastrointestinal system. However, this digestive process changes when you drink alcohol, because it is viewed by the body as a toxin and thus gets immediate attention.

On an empty stomach, the alcohol molecules diffuse through the stomach wall quickly and can reach the brain and liver in minutes. This process is slower when you have food in your stomach, but as soon as that food enters the small intestine, the alcohol grabs first priority and is absorbed quickly into the bloodstream. As the alcohol reaches the liver for processing, the liver places all of its attention on the alcohol. If you drink very slowly, all the alcohol is collected by the liver and processed immediately, avoiding all other body systems. However, if you drink quickly, the liver cannot keep up and the alcohol continues to circulate in the body until the liver is available to process it. That’s why drinking large amounts, or drinking quickly, affects the brain centres involved with speech, vision, reasoning and judgment.

But wait, there’s more…
Alcohol is also a diuretic, meaning that it causes water-loss and dehydration, causing the loss of important minerals such as magnesium, potassium, calcium and zinc. These minerals are vital to the maintenance of fluid balance, chemical reactions, and muscle contraction and relaxation. Added to that, when the body is focused on processing alcohol, it is not able to properly break down foods containing carbohydrates and fat. Therefore, these calories are converted into body fat. Meanwhile, alcohol contains seven calories per gram and offers no nutritional value. It only adds empty calories to your diet. Also, skipping a meal to save your calories for drinks later is a bad idea. If you come to the bar hungry, you are even more likely to munch on unhealthy snacks, which are often salty, making you thirsty and leading to more drinking. Rather eat a healthy meal first, and sip water between drinks – you’ll feel fuller, which will stop you from over-drinking.

Alcohol affects your body in other negative ways:
1 Drinking may help induce sleep, but the sleep you get isn’t very deep, which can trigger you to eat more calories the next day.
2 Alcohol can also increase the amount of acid that your stomach produces, causing your stomach lining to become inflamed.
3 Over time, excessive alcohol use can lead to serious health problems, including stomach ulcers, liver disease and heart trouble.
4 Alcohol lowers your inhibitions, which is detrimental to your diet plans. Research shows that if you drink before or during a meal, both your inhibitions and willpower are reduced, so you are more likely to overeat, especially greasy or fried foods, which can add to your waistline.
5 Alcohol actually stimulates your appetite.

Moderation is key
In any weight-loss plan, there are three main components: Diet, exercise and sleep. As stated, a moderate amount of alcohol can increase total calories, decrease your motivation for exercise and healthy eating, and negatively affect your sleep. Despite this, many people can enjoy a drink or two without throwing those three components completely out of whack. On the other hand, drinking heavily can significantly derail energy levels, has a larger influence on dehydration, negatively impacts hormonal levels, and can significantly disrupt your sleep. Therefore, limit your overall intake of alcohol and you will reap some of the enjoyment of alcohol consumption, while not derailing your overall progress. As with all things in life, moderation is the key.

Image: Fotolia

From deciding to get back into shape, a journey of four years has seen friends Zoe Riley and Audrey Hattingh discover the joys of running, make new friends, get to see new places and challenge themselves, and along the way they have inspired many others to start running as well. – BY MANFRED SEIDLER

Running has a way of getting into the heart and soul, because not only is it healthy and good for you, but it’s also great fun. That’s what Zoe Riley and Audrey Hattingh, two long-time friends from Johannesburg, have found since they took up running in 2014, but while their own personal bests and race finishes have given them great satisfaction, their biggest achievement is undoubtedly having inspired many others to take up running as well. Zoe’s husband Rob and Audrey’s husband Gareth are now running, and their friend Jacqui Carr and her husband James are running, plus the various kids, and other friends and family, and work colleagues…

Not only that, but it also ties in with Zoe’s work. She is a financial broker specialising in medical aid schemes, and part of her portfolio is to encourage people to sign up for packages that reward them for being healthy. Having worked with Discovery for many years, she says the Vitality packages just made sense to her, to the extent that she wanted to buy into it herself. “I always felt that if I am going to sell the product, I need to be able to believe in it, so I decided to try out the Vitality programme myself. That led to the two of us starting to exercise together, then do our first parkrun, and eventually to start running races.”

ON THE RUN
It all started eight months after the birth of Zoe’s second child, when she felt she needed to get back into shape and started going to the gym, with Audrey agreeing to join her. “We just felt that it was time to do something again. Work, family, kids had all been the priorities, but once things had settled a bit, we felt it was time to do something for ourselves, so we headed off to gym. It was great because not only were we training, but we were also able to share quality time with each other.” However, soon gym workouts were no longer enough…

Parkruns have taken South Africa by storm since being introduced in November 2011. They offer a safe, free and fun way for the whole family to exercise and socialise, and today there are more than 120 parkruns taking place every weekend all over South Africa, with the total number of registered participants numbering nearly 450,000. Being based in the Bedfordview area of Johannesburg, the closest parkrun for the girls back then was at Modderfontein, about 15km up the highway, and that’s where the girls headed to start their New Year’s running resolution.

“Our first parkrun was on the fourth of January in 2014, and it was so much fun,” says Audrey. “We loved every minute of it,” echoes Zoe. “Our families came out, we had coffee afterwards, it was just a really pleasant way to spend the morning, and we got in our training!” That day proved a life-changing experience, and for the next year, every Saturday without fail, Zoe and Audrey would be on the Modderfontein start line. Later, however, merely showing up every weekend at the parkrun was not enough… They wanted to become more involved, so they put their names down to become part of the volunteer programme.

“After 20 runs, Event Director Wayde Morsink encourages participants to help out and marshal on run day, so we contacted him and put our names down, but then heard nothing for a long time,” says Zoe. “Then one Friday evening, at around 10pm, I received an SMS asking if we could help the following day. It just so happened that Audrey was with me at the time and we immediately agreed. The following day we helped with the marshalling, but afterwards I went to Wayde and had a chat with him. I told him that sending SMS’s out at 10pm the night before clearly meant that he needed some administrative help, so I ended up becoming the volunteer coordinator for the next two years. During that time we hit the biggest field ever assembled at a South African parkrun, with over 1800 people participating!”

STEPPING UP
As with all training, the girls eventually hit a plateau in their running, but help was at hand. The Modderfontein parkrun is close to the Bedfordview Running Club, and many club members regularly take part in the parkruns. With time spent together at the parkrun, it was natural that friendships were formed. “They were so helpful and had good advice on how to improve our running, so we ended up training more. Instead of only doing twice a week gym sessions and the weekly parkrun, we now did more runs in the week, too,” says Zoe.

“We started going to the Bedfordview Time Trial and ran the 4km loop every week. This led to our first 10km race, the Sarens 10km in March 2015,” says Audrey. “But we really wanted to do a half marathon,” adds Zoe, “and we wanted it to be a different kind of half, so we decided on Knynsa in July of 2015. We loved the fresh air, the run through the forest, the whole atmosphere, and we finished in 2:41. That’s when we decided to look for half marathons that were different to the ones that lie on our doorstep, especially after doing the Dis-Chem Half in January 2016. Dis-Chem was great fun, but it was literally on our doorstep, and we wanted something different out of our races, so we decided to do the Peninsula Half Marathon in Cape Town that March.”

The Peninsula Half includes the scenic coast road from Muizenburg to the finish at the Naval Grounds in Simonstown, but if the south-easterly wind is blowing, it can be a tough run into a strong headwind. “Running along that beachfront was simply amazing, but the wind was something to behold!” recalls Zoe. “That was tough, really tough, but we still enjoyed it. We were hoping to break our PB’s there, as the route is almost flat, but with that wind, it was not to be.”

GOOD TIMES
In sticking with their philosophy of running out of town half marathons, Zoe and Audrey gave the 2017 Kaapsehoop Half Marathon a go this past November, and there they did succeed in smashing those PBs, taking 12 minutes off their previous best. “The last 4km were tough and we had to ‘talk nicely’ to ourselves to get there,” says Audrey. “When we set out on this journey, all we wanted to do was break 2:30 for the half marathon, so when we ran in at 2:24, we were ecstatic! We have no ambitions to run anything beyond 21 kays, but would dearly love to run an international race, and Berlin looks to be the one we will look at first. And hopefully we will keep inspiring others to join us for a run.”

Images: Jetline Action Photo

When event organisers send out their final instructions for ultra-events, especially for those happening in the mountains, take note and don’t fob off the compulsory kit items, because they may just save your life, or someone else’s life. – BY ALISON CHADWICK

With glorious weather to see us off, 61 enthusiastic trail runners set off at the start of the Mighty Mutter 65km or Mutter 37km trail run on 7 October. Run in the Southern Drakensberg, both events are self-navigating, and this was my third Mutter. The first 13km up to Thule Beacon at 2537m was tough going, and thanks to the great weather, we wished we’d worn our short Funky Pants rather than long leggings. However, once on top of the ridge, the temperature immediately dropped and we could see the rain approaching, and we soon pulled on an extra layer and rain jacket. Just 10 minutes later the rain started and it got very cold, and actually quite unpleasant.

We continued in these conditions for the next 10km, and I could see that one of the women in our group, Fiona Dawson, looked like she was struggling – not fitness-wise, but with the cold and rain. She did not have the correct gear, notably a waterproof jacket, nor did she have gloves. Another factor when it is raining is that no one wants to stop to eat or take a drink from the streams, and on this particular day everyone was too cold to stop, so we just kept going, and unless your food is easy to reach, you’re not going to stop to eat.

We reached our third and last checkpoint at “The Pig,” about 23km into the race, and at this point I knew I had to help Fiona, as she was shivering and shaking uncontrollably. I could see that the early signs of hypothermia were perhaps setting in, and luckily I had a dry long-sleeve thermal top, a windbreaker and a spare pair of gloves for her, and we used my poncho space blanket as her outer layer. I also insisted that she eat something, even though her hands were shaking too much. (She doesn’t eat ham, but she said she didn’t care at that stage!)

A FRIEND IN NEED
In situations like this, you just know you have to do something to help someone who is struggling, and both Fiona and her daughter Sarah said I saved her life. I think that is perhaps a bit overly dramatic, but I am grateful I had the extra kit… and to be honest, I was actually excited to finally use my space blanket, which I’ve carried with me for about seven years!

Conditions in the mountains can change in an instant. When the mist moves into the mountains, it becomes another ball-game altogether, and you have to rely solely on your tracking device to find your way. Even when I was packing the night before, I threw in a spare set of batteries and my partner said to me, “You’re not going to need those,” and I replied that maybe I won’t need them, but someone else may…

I need to point out that the women’s winner did the 37km course in 4 hours 44 minutes, but us slower runners took nine hours or more, so you can see that the compulsory kit it even more relevant for the backmarkers, as we spend a lot more time out there. At prize-giving, I found out that the event organiser, Malcolm Millar, had witnessed what had happened up on the mountain, and I was awarded the “Lighthouse in a Storm” award. More importantly, I think we all learnt from this experience. It was a tough lesson to learn, especially for Fiona our frozen runner, but also a lesson I’m sure she will never forget, and a few weeks after Mutter I received a lovely gift and card from her to say how much she appreciated my help, and that we’ll always share this special bond.

Images: Courtesy Alison Chadwick

The Ironman World Champs race in Kona, Hawaii, is considered one of the toughest sporting events, and when blind triathlete Helen Webb crossed the Kona finish line this October, she added yet another chapter to an already impressive and inspiring story. – BY SEAN FALCONER

Born with just 10% vision caused by albinism, a congenital disorder characterised by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes, Helen Webb has spent her whole life trying to change perceptions of people with disabilities. “I was bullied at school and told that I was a monster, and even though that stopped when I reached my 20s, I still felt I was not good enough,” she says. However, that all began to change when she set out to show what she could do, both academically (she has a Ph.D. in chemistry) and physically. “Prior to running and triathlon, I felt like I was not really achieving much in life – it was just about how I viewed myself – but triathlon has helped me see myself as an extraordinary visually impaired person, and I hope my story will inspire others to do the same.”

Helen (37) was born in London, spent 10 years in the USA and then moved to SA at age 11. Growing up in Johannesburg, she says she was not at all sporty. “I was actually not allowed to participate in sport, because I had a severe lack of eye-hand co-ordination, on top of albinism, which meant I couldn’t spend that much time in the sun. Then in my early 20s a friend took me for a 5km run, and to my surprise, I didn’t die, so I began running, up to half marathon distance. I found that my eyesight was not an issue, but I’m not particularly fast, because I’m only in control of about 1.5m in front of me. On the track I can bang out four minutes a kay easily, but on the road I’m lucky to do seven minutes a kay.”

Next Challenge, Please
At 31 Helen felt she needed a bigger challenge. “I decided to run the Comrades, because that’s what you do in SA… I did lots of marathons, but for two years I couldn’t get any faster to qualify. Then in 2012 I began doing speed training, and got my marathon down to 4:30. Starting my first Comrades was a big thing for me, but by 20km I felt exhausted and overwhelmed. I couldn’t overtake people because I have no depth perception, and then just before halfway I tripped on a cat’s eye and fell. I was covered in blood and my knee was really sore, but I carried on till Cato Ridge at 68km, where I eventually dropped out. It was only afterwards that I realised I had a broken bone in my hand and torn ligaments in my knee!”

“I went back in 2014 and finished the race, but again the start was difficult and I couldn’t cut across other runners to get water, so I did 30 to 40km without water. I ran it again 2016, but by then I had already decided I wanted to do Ironman, even though I was terrified of the water.” In fact, Helen says just trying to swim in the pool left her literally unable to breathe from anxiety, but she still went to the Ironman in PE to help as a volunteer and see what the race was like. “I heard people say look at the swimmers at the buoys. I couldn’t even see the water’s edge, let alone the buoys… and the people were doing 60 kays an hour or more on the bikes. I thought I could literally kill somebody if I did the wrong thing at that kind of speed!

Down, But Not Out
Feeling devastated, the PE trip made Helen realise she would need help if she wanted to achieve her Ironman goal. “From a young age I had been told I would never be independent, or live by myself, but I had gained a lot of independence through running. It was therefore a huge thing to accept that I would need a guide and a tandem bike to do Ironman. That’s when I contacted Derick Marcisz, as I had several friends who had been part of his Dare to Tri programme. He very kindly offered to fetch me in the mornings and guide me in pack runs, and helped me find a borrowed tandem to ride.”

“Now the challenge was to find a female guide, as per the ITU rules, and I needed somebody who could deal with my panic in the water, and also put up with my slow speed on the bike and run. In the end, we made a desperate plea on social media late in 2016 and found Desi Dickinson, an elite age grouper who said she wanted to give back to the sport. From the end of October 2016, she dedicated her training time to me for Ironman 70.3 East London, and then Ironman Port Elizabeth. I had never expected to find somebody of her calibre willing to give up everything for me!”

When Helen went to East London in January, she was still panicking about the swim, and to make matters worse, the sea was so rough in the days leading up to the race that she and Desi could only do one short sea swim. “I did that first swim in a panicked state, feeling like I was going to drown. I was actually incredibly lucky that Desi had lifesaving skills, because after just 300 metres I had physically given up and she had to pull me back in. Once back on the beach I collapsed from shock. That evening at supper I told Derick I didn’t think I could get back in there tomorrow, but he just said he wasn’t going to entertain my doubts, and that he knew I could do it… so I thought, why not.”

Fortunately, race day brought calm seas and Helen says the swim was actually amazing. Despite tough bike and run legs, she came home to claim her medal, ecstatic to have conquered her fear. She and Desi then went on to finish the Full Ironman in PE, but Helen says that really took it out of her. “After PE, I was broken psychologically, because in the middle of preparing for the race I had left my job under difficult circumstances, and had no income for four months, so I didn’t even know if I was going to make it to PE. The day before the race, Desi asked if I was scared, and I told her no, because it hurt much more getting there.”

Surprise Entry
Then in May Helen found out she had won a slot for Kona in the lottery, but given her state of mind, and finances, she thought she would have turn it down. “I didn’t think I could do another six months of this, and I would need to ask my guide to go at her own cost, and for no reward, since guides are not considered official entrants. But then I thought this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so I phoned Desi, even though I knew she had her own commitments and goals. I was already amazed that she had given me two races and six months, so I wasn’t surprised when she said no, and I will remain forever grateful for all that she did for me.”

Fortunately, Helen soon found a replacement. “One name that kept coming up was Caroline Gaynor, from the USA. She had already guided some 20 athletes in about 40 races, including eight full Ironmans, making her probably the most experienced female guide in the world, so I asked her and she said yes. I continued training with various guides in SA, then went over to Kona five weeks before the race, and was incredibly lucky that the whole tri community got together to look after me. Caroline arrived the Monday before the race weekend, and when my tandem arrived on the Tuesday, we rode together for the first time. Thanks to all her experience, she knew exactly how to guide me right from the start.”

Come race day and Helen says the swim was actually easy, but the bike leg was much harder. “We did a lot of climbing into a headwind, but the worst was the heat radiating off the road and lava fields. With albinism, I am sensitive to heat and sun, and by the time we got to 120km, my head was sweating profusely, my jaw locked, and I felt like I was going to black out. I couldn’t talk, but Caroline quickly realised I was developing heat stroke, so she stopped at an aid station and told the volunteers to put ice in my tri suit. I wasn’t even ‘there’ at that stage, but once my core temperature dropped I was fine again, so we said let’s get this race done.”

Another problem hit them about 15km into the run, as night fell. “We had lights in our special needs bags, but they were only at 28km, and it was pitch black out on the highway, so now neither of us could see much. We had to walk a long section while trying not to collide with other runners, and when we eventually got to the finish in 16:27, Caroline was in tears, whereas I was fine. I think the emotional stress of the day got to her, whereas I had my nervous breakdown three days after the race, when I realised there was no more need for training, or finding a guide, or dealing with logistics. I just balled and balled and balled!”

True Bravery
After her remarkable journey to the finish at Kona, Helen has received many messages of congratulations, but she quickly downplays her achievement. “People say I am so brave to race Ironman, but race days are actually easy, as I have somebody to guide me, and do things for me. I think leaving my house and going to work every day is my true bravery, and some of my hardest moments are just going to the shop and trying to buy a tin of tuna, because I can’t see the shelves, or the people, or the till. I don’t want to take anything away from people who finish Comrades or Ironman, but my day-to-day struggles are much bigger than that, so I hope my story will inspire others, and hopefully one day we will see a hundred visually impaired athletes doing Ironman.”

Images: Finisherpix & courtesy Helen Webb

In January 2004, caffeine was taken off the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of banned substances used in competitive sports, but earlier this year it was placed back on the WADA monitoring list, and may be put back on the list in 2018, once studies have been done this year. – BY CHRISTINE PETERS, REGISTERED DIETICIAN

Caffeine is the best known member of a family of naturally occurring stimulants found in leaves, nuts and seeds in over 60 plants, and dietary sources include tea, coffee, chocolate, soft drinks and energy drinks. Typically, these provide 20 to 200mg of caffeine per serving. The main source of caffeine in sports drinks, gels and supplements is guarana.

It's well-known that caffeine makes us more alert and delays sleep, and it's also popular among athletes, since it can improve performance in some sports. Caffeine has a complex range of actions on the body which have been extensively researched. It has several effects on skeletal muscle, and through some of these actions, caffeine may stimulate fat metabolism during aerobic exercise, ‘sparing’ glycogen stores and thus delaying fatigue.

However, other studies have found this effect to be short-lived and confined to certain individuals only. Caffeine has also been found to have other effects on the body that may influence athletic performance: It may affect the central nervous system, such as reduced perception of effort and enhanced recruitment of motor units, which may give athletes a ‘buzz’ and mask fatigue.

Caffeine Dose
Caffeine is rapidly absorbed, reaching peak concentrations in the blood within an hour after ingestion, and studies point to smaller amounts taken in throughout exercise being beneficial for performance, rather than one larger dose one hour prior to a bout of exercise. It’s also thought that as an athlete fatigues during exercise, they become more sensitive to small doses of caffeine. Looking at various studies, it seems that beneficial effects from caffeine occur at very modest levels of intakes (1 to 3mg/kg body mass or 70 to 150mg caffeine), when taken prior to or during exercise. (One cup of coffee can contain anywhere between 25 and 214mg caffeine.)

It is important to remember, however, that caffeine-loading is not good for all athletes. Like any drug, caffeine affects everyone differently. Some athletes will respond and receive a pronounced performance boost, whereas some athletes are non-responders, or may even experience disadvantageous side-effects that are detrimental to performance, such as tremors, increased heart rate, headaches and impaired sleep. However, contrary to popular opinion, caffeinated drinks do not dehydrate us, especially if we are used to caffeine.

In terms of long-term health, people often ask whether caffeine is safe. Right now, it appears that a moderate caffeine intake does not increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis or cancer, but as with most things, the most important thing to remember is everything in moderation! For the average healthy adult, moderate caffeine intakes pose no health risk, especially if we eat a balanced diet and enjoy regular physical activity.

About the Author
Christine is a registered dietician based in the Johannesburg area.