What counts as a serving?
The defaults follow common Canadian serving sizes: a 237 ml (8 oz) cup of brewed coffee, a 237 ml steeped tea, a 30 ml espresso shot, a 355 ml can of cola, and so on. If you’re drinking a 600 ml takeout coffee, count it as roughly two-and-a-half servings of brewed coffee.
Health Canada’s published guidance
Health Canada publishes daily caffeine intake recommendations on the Canada.ca Food and Nutrition portal. For most healthy adults, staying at or below 400 mg per day is unlikely to cause adverse health effects. During pregnancy or breastfeeding the suggested ceiling drops to 300 mg per day, and for children and adolescents it scales with body weight at 2.5 mg per kg per day.
Common sources of hidden caffeine
- Pre-workout supplements and many fat-burner blends
- Some over-the-counter pain relievers (e.g. Excedrin-style formulations)
- Mate, yerba and guarana teas
- Some chocolate bars and even a few decaf coffees (3–7 mg per cup)
Limits of this tool
Caffeine sensitivity varies dramatically between people because of the CYP1A2enzyme. Two adults of the same weight can metabolise caffeine 2–3× differently and feel correspondingly different effects. Pregnant or breastfeeding people, people on stimulant medication, and anyone with arrhythmias should set their own ceiling lower than the population guidance and discuss intake with their doctor.