Why Is Coffee So Bad For You?

While in theory it might not sound that bad, the reality is that coffee does have its downside (as well as upside). The downside of caffeine Makes you jittery and shaky Makes it hard to sleep Elevates heart rate Causes uneven heart rhythm Raises blood pressure Causes headaches, dizziness, nervousness Makes you dehydrated

Up to 400 milligrams (mg) of caffeine a day appears to be safe for most healthy adults. That’s roughly the amount of caffeine in four cups of brewed coffee, 10 cans of cola or two “energy shot” drinks.

Here are some of the reasons that drinking coffee ruins you:

• Makes all other beverages bland and boring by comparison.
• Becomes an important part of your life until you can’t function without it.
• Makes you prone to fits of rage if someone is taking too long at Starbucks.
• Increases your tendency to scoff at people who drink regular coffee.
• Your head is stuffed with useless information.
• You’re going broke.

• Find caffeine substitutes that are suitable. Regular coffee drinkers may gradually lower their caffeine consumption by including a little amount of decaf into their everyday cup.
• Make sure you get enough rest. Getting adequate sleep will aid in the battle against weariness.
• Drink plenty of water. It’s critical to stay hydrated.

Is coffee bad for you?

Especially since voices just as reliable as those in favor of coffee drinking are proving that, long term, coffee consumption may hold quite serious side effects for our health. Let’s recapitulate. Coffee is natural and it does have its benefits. It is rich in potent antioxidants such as chlorogenic acid.

The caffeine in coffee is a powerful brain stimulant, which may be a good thing only if you want to increase your alertness in the morning or fuel the second part of your work day. If you are already having sleeping problems, drinking coffee will only worsen them, causing insomnia, disturbed sleep and a lot of frustration.

However, regular consumption of coffee during pregnancy can potentially impair fetal development and increase the risk for premature delivery, announced the ACOG in a 2010 release, recommending that expecting mothers consume no more than 200 mg of caffeine a day (this includes coffee, chocolate, tea, caffeinated drinks).

According to preliminary research, caffeine can prevent the full development of egg cells, making them unfit for producing a pregnancy. Statistics suggest that women who are looking to conceive, but consume five or more cups of coffee a day (or large amounts of dark chocolate) have an up to 50% lower chance of conceiving. Experts recommend that women limit their caffeine intake to 50-100 mg a day, though more research on the subject is needed.

May increase cancer risks. While it has been shown that the antioxidants in coffee beans and coffee may protect against several aggressive forms of cancer, emerging research has found that coffee also contains acrylamide, a known and probable carcinogen.

While most studies regarding the effects of coffee consumption on cardiovascular health deny any link between coffee drinking and heart problems, it has been demonstrated that certain compounds in coffee actually raise blood pressure. So while healthy people can drink coffee in moderation without having to worry about hypertension, heart disease sufferers are advised to avoid it because it will raise their already high blood pressure to dangerous levels, potentially increasing their risk of cardiovascular events. Moreover, coffee impairs the absorption of minerals, including electrolytes such as potassium and magnesium which are directly responsible for maintaining healthy blood pressure levels.

As far as depression is concerned, coffee is a powerful diuretic which stimulates the body to get rid of excess water. The trouble is that dietary minerals such as magnesium are also eliminated in urine, and often in great amounts. Moreover, regular, that is, daily consumption of coffee and especially higher than recommended intakes can impair nutrient absorption at intestinal level. And the result of a prolonged magnesium deficiency is depression. So while coffee may be said to reduce depression risks, it may only do so in individuals with no history of depression, who drink only moderate amounts of it, but have a sufficiently generous intake of magnesium as well.

Does coffee help with cardiovascular disease?

Also, higher coffee consumption has not been linked to elevated cardiovascular disease risk. What this says is that the more coffee you drink, the lower your risk of cardiovascular diseases. They have not been able to show any links between drinking too much coffee and getting more cardiovascular disease.

There is a fair amount of evidence in scholarly literature that suggest that coffee improves our memory and recall. For example, there was a study from 2009 where they gave a high amount of college students six lists of 15 words each to memorize.

So far, we’ve discussed that the studies generally show that coffee has a positive effect on our mental alertness, mental performance, and on our physical performance. There are some studies that show a link between coffee consumption, or caffeine consumption, and a reduction in long term health problems. Like most things, especially caffeine since it may remain in your system for quite some time, moderation is important. When safely consumed, the health benefits are quite impressive.

Next, we have some evidence that coffee can actually help a recovery from exercise as well. For example, there was a study from the University of Illinois which showed that caffeine consumption can reduce DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness, which is that pumping kind of pain that you get in your muscles a day or two after exercising. Although these are awful, the best thing to do is to go for a run or to repeat the exercise that caused them!

Studies have showed that coffee consumption is negatively correlated with a bunch of long term health problems. For example, coffee is inversely correlated with the development of some neurodegenerative conditions. There was a systematic review and a meta analysis of 26 studies that were done in 2010. In these, they found that 300 milligrams of caffeine per day, which is three or four cups of coffee, reduced the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease by 32 percent which is quite a large number. The authors from these studies came to the conclusion that there was an inverse association between caffeine intake and the risk of Parkinson’s disease, which can hardly be explained by bias or uncontrolled confounding.

So overall, is coffee good for you? Well, we’ve looked at some of the evidence, and the evidence does suggest that coffee does reliably improve alertness, vigilance, memory recall and even mood provide. Just don’t have too much of it because having too much of it can then cause anxiety, jitteriness and restlessness. It is safe to say that the benefits of coffee outweigh the negative side effects.

Secondly, there is a lot of evidence that when we have caffeine, especially later in the day, that it can really negatively impact our sleep. So, for example, we’ve got this study from 2013 and they gave different people a 400 milligram dose of caffeine. So about four and a bit cups of coffee, either 0 3 or 6 hours before bedtime compared to a placebo group who had, well, a placebo pill. And they showed that this moderate dose of caffeine, whether you had it just before or three hours before or even six hours before bedtime, that had a significant negative impact on quality of sleep. And overall, we know that caffeine can remain in our system for up to nine hours. And so like people generally suggest and I start following this advice that you shouldn’t drink any coffee after 2:00 p.m. because that like if you sleep at 9:00, 10:00 or 11:00 p.m., that could still have a negative impact on your quality of sleep.

Why is coffee a cancer warning?

The recent decision by a California judge to require cancer warning labels on coffee stemmed from concerns about a specific substance found in coffee, acrylamide , which is a chemical that is produced when coffee is roasted. Coffee isn’t the only food or beverage that contains acrylamide.

But before you panic, while there definitely is acrylamide in coffee, scientists have yet to conclusively prove that this chemical causes cancer, according to the ACS. Most of the research on humans hasn’t found any increased risk of cancer in people who eat foods containing acrylamide.

Coffee isn’t the only food or beverage that contains acrylamide. Acrylamide is produced during the high-temperature cooking process used for numerous common foods, including cookies, crackers, and potato chips, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).