Much ado about very little?

Everywhere you look over the last couple of days, the news been inescapable: a new study in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology suggests that too much caffeine in pregnancy can cause miscarriages.

While many have treated this like it's earth-shattering information, it's basically the same thing pregnant women have been told for years: too much caffeine can be bad for your unborn child. The only difference is the definition of "too much."

According to the study, pregnant women who consume 200 milligrams (10 ounces of coffee or 25 ounces of tea) or more of caffeine a day may double their risk of miscarriage.

The March of Dimes has been telling women that most experts agree the amount of caffeine found in 8 to 16 ounces of coffee a day is safe. So basically we're fear-mongering over 2 to 6 ounces.

What really surprised me about the way the news was handled yesterday on NBC (from the Today Show, to a story on my local news at noon and to the evening news - both local and national) was the complete disregard for a second equally new study that reaches a somewhat different conclusion. (FYI, the NBC "expert" who appeared on the evening news stated that the "danger zone" amount was 2,000 milligrams, not the 200 included in the study.)

The January edition of Epidemiology contained a study that found no link between miscarriage and caffeine consumption. This particular study came from an examination of the caffeine consumption of 2,407 pregnant women - more than twice the 1,063 women in the much more hyped-up study.

I'm in no way suggesting that pregnant women should start chugging double espressos. If anything, I would hope that, for the sake of their unborn child, pregnant women would give up caffeine altogether, cut back to half a cup a day or go decaf (which, despite its name, still contains trace amounts of caffeine).

As with anything, the way this news was hyped only reinforces why it's important to research all the facts yourself, rather than simply believing everything the talking heads inside the magic box tell you.