Your Daily Coffee Is Killing You!

Coffee is a Killer

Truth or Fiction?

OK so I very much doubt your coffee is killing you, but some people are this extreme is their views. They seem to think that coffee is the devil because it contains caffeine, which is a drug and should be avoided. Now I love coffee, consume it daily and also get caffeine from other sources from energy drinks to chocolate. I am going to look at what science says to make my opinion on whether caffeine is good or bad, because I know my coffee isn’t killing people, that we can be sure of. I will note that a toxic dose of caffeine is between 20-40mg/kg bodyweight, so I at 75kg would need to consume 1500-3000mg of caffeine, which would be 10-20 average coffees.

What is Caffeine?

Taken straight from Examine.com ‘Caffeine is a stimulatory anti-sleep compound extracted from coffee beans’. It is most commonly consumed in the form of tea and coffee, and is the worlds most popular drug. It has been heavily researched and is deemed safe, but like anything else this is assuming moderation.

Coffee in general has between 40-180mg per 150ml and tea 24ml-50mg per 150ml. Once consumed it can have an immediate effect, however peak values in the blood take 15-120 minutes and most commonly seen is 30 – 45 minutes. The impact of caffeine can last quite a while, as its half-life can be up to 4.5 hours but has been seen to be as low as 2.5 hours.

What are the Benefits?

Funny enough even the idea of caffeine intake can improve our mood, which suggests it has a potential placebo effect. I know personally if I smell a fresh coffee I automatically feel more awake, if only they could produce a decaf coffee that tastes like the real deal.

It has been shown that caffeine can help to reduce the risk of Parkinson’s, and can help in therapy against it. Furthermore, caffeine has shown to increase metabolic rate and fat loss, however be warned habitual intake can make us desensitised to this.

Caffeine is widely known as an ergogenic aid, which means it has sports performance benefits. It appears muscle cells have an increased power output, also it has been seen to improve endurance performance by decreasing fatigue.

One study looked at caffeine and it’s impact on the number of calories we burn and fat mobilisation. It saw that a daily intake of say 6 strong cups of coffee led to an extra 100kcal expenditure. Wahey, that’s pretty nice right?! Well not only that but caffeine has also been shown to increase fat mobilisation and oxidation.

What are the Downsides?

So apparently coffee should be avoided because of the insulin response it creates, and insulin is the fat storing devil right? Well no, it may have been seen to impair glucose tolerance in the short term, but in the long term, which is what matters, it has actually been found to lower people’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Suggesting coffee does not raise insulin for long periods of time or make us insulin insensitive.

You may have heard that we can get addicted to caffeine, currently however there is insufficient evidence to suggest you can get addicted to caffeine, yet this may change as it does interact with our reward systems such as acute dopamine release, but this gets blunted with chronic use.

Not really a downside, but more something that I personally get frustrated by is getting caffeine tolerant. To date the mechanism by which we become tolerant to caffeine is unknown, but with chronic use we do begin to lose some of the effects of caffeine. It does seem possible to actually consume caffeine routinely without developing a tolerance, only anecdotally but going for 3-5 days should be enough time so not to become tolerant.

Conclusions

So as you can see coffee and principally caffeine has been investigated thoroughly, but some things are still a little inconclusive, but that’s to be expected as science is tentative and ever evolving.

In the short term we see some benefits to sports performance and mood, but also decreased glucose tolerance and a slight rise in blood pressure. Yet long term studies show that overall coffee is beneficial, decreasing the risk of diabetes, parkinsons and increasing calorie burn and fat mobilisation. If we take this together we can see that overall coffee is only going to help in fat loss, our results, and health, because of the short term benefits and the fact over time the negatives are not seen.

However, like everything coffee and caffeine should be consumed in moderation, as we can become reliant on it and potentially addicted. I would also note that the benefits of coffee in particular are only apparent if the person isn’t adding a load of sugar, cream or even god forbid butter to their coffee. So continue to drink coffee, but don’t have too much if you still want to experience a kick!