There are few things that Bostonions take as seriously as their sports teams, and one of them is arguably their clam chowder.

This past Sunday, July 6th, marked the 27th annual Boston Chowderfest – the traditional finale of the Boston Harborfest – where thousands of people pay to sample local chowders and render their verdict. The Boston City Hall Plaza was packed with over 12,000 people earnestly debating the merits of the various chowder selections. They stood in lines up to 50 people deep as a small brass band played and a stilt-walker in revolutionary era garb mingled with the crowd. 

Christopher’s of Maynard (51 Main St., Maynard) successfully defended their 2007 title of “Boston’s Best Chowder” with a light, creamy creation laden with rosemary and pepper. Parker’s Restaurant at the Omni Parker House Hotel (60 School St., Boston) came in second with the richest of the bunch – a chunky chowder so thick it was almost the consistency of soft butter and packed with grit-free clams. Third place was awarded to Farmer Brown’s (210 Maple St., Middleton) for a sweet and chunky, but otherwise unremarkable, chowder that for all we could tell could have come from a can.

The rest of the four chowder selections ranged from should-have-won to widely reviled, the best coming from The Daily Grill (105 Huntington Ave., Boston) which offered Trappey’s Louisiana Hot Sauce and fresh cracked pepper to compliment a hearty, sage-infused soup. An almost perfect chowder, it lost points for grit content.

At 2 p.m., with four hours left to go, the chef of the Daily Grill, Daniel Greenough, looked out over the 100 or so people waiting in front of his booth and said, “I made 300 gallons. I don’t think it’s going to be enough.”

The Oceanaire (40 Court St., Boston) served up a hearty, creamy chowder with a sharp cheese flavor while the Daily Catch’s (323 Hanover St., North End, Boston) was sweet, bready, and occasionally gritty. As the afternoon progressed, word rippled through the crowd that The Chicken Bone (1260 Boylston St., Boston) booth should be avoided.

“It’s like drinking salad dressing,” said Emily, an angular blonde in her early teens.

The one non-restaurant competitor of the bunch, the USS Bataan – an amphibious naval assault ship currently docked in Boston Harbor – served something resembling dish water with bits of fatty bacon floating in it. Luckily for the latecomers, the Bataan ran out of chowder around 3 p.m.

The Harborfest, a “celebration of Boston’s colonial and maritime history,” is a six-day event featuring musical acts and family activities.

On a breezy afternoon in Brookline, Karen Rizman, 59, is sitting at her kitchen table, reminiscing about her love affair with Diet Pepsi.

“It had to be in a can,” she says, “And it had to be ice cold. From the minute I got up in the morning, all day long I kept going back for that Pepsi. I didn’t realize I was addicted until I tried to stop drinking it and I couldn’t.”

After struggling through what she describes as “horrible withdrawal,” including headaches, nervousness, and “jitters,” Karen Rizman did stop drinking Diet Pepsi at 25 and now tries to avoid caffeine altogether, with the exception of chocolate.

Rizman’s experience is not unusual because most Americans don’t realize how much caffeine they are consuming, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The group has filed a petition with the FDA, asking the government to require food and beverage companies to include caffeine content on their product labels. They have also asked that the FDA conduct a comprehensive investigation into the health effects of caffeine, which is a common additive in sodas and energy drinks, as well as some ice creams and yogurts.

According to the petition, which was signed by 34 scientists and ten health and consumer groups and cites over 40 scientific studies, the risks associated with caffeine include reduced fertility, miscarriage, low birth weight, anxiety, sleeplessness, calcium imbalance – which can contribute to osteoporosis - and unpleasant side effects of ceasing caffeine consumption.

“Caffeine is the only drug that is widely added to the food supply,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of CSPI, at a press conference in Washington, D.C., according to a press release, “and consumers have a right to know how much caffeine various foods contain. Knowing the caffeine content is important to many people — especially women who are or might become pregnant — who might want to limit or avoid caffeine.”

A chart provided by CSPI lists the caffeine content (mg) per serving of 90 foods and beverages. The products range from a Spike Shooter energy drink with a whopping 300 mg of caffeine per 8.4 oz. serving to Snapple Peach tea with 42 mg per 16 oz. bottle and Sprite which contains no caffeine at all.

Some of the products on the list are more surprising than others. An energy drink called Cocaine may be expected to contain 280 mg of caffeine per 8.4 oz. can, but a sweet, lemony soda like Mountain Dew turns out to contain its fair share as well, with 54 mg per 12 oz. serving. According to CSPI’s press release, Sunkist Orange Soda, which does not appear on the caffeine chart, contains 40 mg of caffeine in every can.

“This all comes down to the consumer’s right to know,” said Lisa Cox, program and policies director at the National Women’s Health Network, according to the press release. “When a food contains an ingredient linked to health problems, labels should disclose to shoppers the amount of that ingredient.”

Not everyone is convinced of the usefulness of caffeine labeling, however. Nicola Ferrante, 33, of Boston, stops at Starbucks for a cup of coffee (320 mg/16 oz.) every morning on her way to work. She thinks that too much is being made of the risks of caffeine.

“It’s like anything else,” she says. “A little bit is good, too much is bad, don’t drink it if you’re pregnant. Caffeine is the least of our problems. I mean, if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t know that Coke has caffeine in it, then you’re the kind of person who doesn’t care anyway.”

But to Karen Rizman, who is raising her 17-year-old son, Matt, to be aware of food additives such as high fructose corn syrup and trans fats, caffeine content labels sound like a good idea.

“I don’t let Matt drink energy drinks,” she says. “I think they’re dangerous. And I just found out that caffeine is one of the main ingredients in Excedrin. Someone told me that, I had no idea. I don’t take it anymore.”

Mustapha S. hates to fly. “We’ve had so many air crashes in my country,” he says. Wearing a green Harvard baseball cap and a brightly printed shirt, he says that he hardly slept during the sixteen hours it took him to fly here from Nigeria because he was so nervous. “I’ve lost so many friends in air crashes.”

Mustapha, 47, speaks so softly that he can barely be heard over the commotion of the class. He rarely makes eye contact and never loses the hint of a smile around his mouth. A chemistry major in college at Ahmadu Bello University, he received his graduate degree in shipping technology at Maritime Academy of Nigeria and now works as a journalist for ThisDay, a Nigerian newspaper with the tagline, “African views on global news.” He saved for two years to come to Harvard for an eight-week journalism pro-seminar, leaving behind his wife, who works as an immigration official, and five children, ages nine to nineteen.

When asked why he made this trip, he looks at the wall behind me and begins by saying that he wants to sharpen his journalistic skills and improve his career. He will receive higher pay, he says, and more respect if he completes this course. He says that Harvard, in particular, is considered very prestigious and that the newspaper industry in Nigeria is not suffering or going through a rapid technological change the way it is in the United States. There are plenty of advertisers for the more than ten national papers in the country, which are all thriving.

Then, in a voice so quiet that I must ask him to repeat himself, he says that he wants to start his own paper and be a “true journalist.” When asked what this means, he says that most of the national papers in Nigeria primarily cover money and politics and that important issues such as poverty, hunger, and corruption, are largely ignored. He wants to “give voice to the voiceless” by choosing investigative stories for his newspaper that highlight these issues. What was it that caused him to choose this path? He shrugs and looks at the floor. “I just don’t like injustice.”