Coffee the worlds second most drunk beverage (behind tea), and yet, theres so much controversy about it. Is coffee bad for you? Is coffee good for you? Thats exactly what were going to talk about in this article.
Heres what were going to cover:
- What are the negative effects of drinking coffee?
- Is coffee bad for your health?
- The benefits of coffee
- Does coffee burn fat?
- Does coffee count as water intake?
Just for fun I looked up what people are asking about coffee on Google. Two of the most common questions asked were:
- Does coffee make you poop?
- Does coffee make your breasts smaller?
The answers to those questions, my friend, we will not be covering in this article in any great depth. But just in case youre wondering: yes, coffee makes you poop, but its not the caffeine in the coffee that does that, because decaf also has that effect. And tragically, yes, coffee can make your breasts smaller (well I guess its not tragic if youre a man). Ever notice how the most frequent visitors of Starbucks, Tim Hortons and Second Cup have the smallest breasts? You did??? Pervert!
Anyways, enough talking about breasts, and lets get to it.
What Are the Negative Effects of Drinking Coffee?
I always say that theres no such thing as a bad food. Only the wrong food, for the wrong person, at the wrong time. And it depends as much on the person, as it does on the food/drink itself.
The same is true for coffee. Its not good, and its not bad. Consumed by the wrong person, its bad. Consumed by the right person, its good. The coffee didnt change the person did.
I talk about this concept my more in one of my most popular seminars, Healthy Foods that Poison: Why Youre Getting Sicker and Fatter, Despite Eating Healthier (and if you want to book me to do that talk, just respond to this email with the words Healthy Foods that Poison in the subject line).
So in which situations are there negative effects to drinking coffee? Here are a few:
- Insomnia. The most obvious one. Some people can clear caffeine from their body very quickly. They can have a coffee right before bed, and sleep just fine. Theyre called fast metabolizers (which is not the same thing as having a fast metabolism. It just means you get caffeine out of your blood quickly). Others can have a cup of coffee at 11 in the morning, and not fall asleep until 2AM. Theyre called slow metabolizers. For these folks, coffee will interfere with their sleep. For the fast metabolizers, it wont.
- If you have high blood pressure. Caffeine is known as a vasoconstrictor. That is, it makes the muscles surrounding arteries contract involuntarily, raising blood pressure. It wont cause high blood pressure, but it will make it worse if you already have it.
- Anxiety. Caffeine is a stimulant, and it prolongs how long cortisol (the stress hormone) stays in the blood. One of the hormonal signatures of anxiety is high cortisol. Coffee does not help that cause. I talk about this, and other contributing nutritional factors in my book, The Mental Health Prescription.
- For people with pre-existing heart problems (especially arrhythmia, where you have an irregular heartbeat), it can make it worse. This is not the case if you dont have heart issues.
- For someone with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), it can worsen symptoms (stay close to a toilet, my friend).
This is not a complete list, but it knocks off a lot of the big issues of who shouldnt drink coffee.
Is Coffee Bad for Your Health?
Lets assume you dont have any of the issues mentioned in the previous section. Youre a perfectly healthy, normal person. Will drinking coffee make your health worse in some way?
Most research shows that outside of the above situations, drinking coffee is not bad for your health, in most people.
Of course, there is a saying that its the dose that makes the poison, and thats certainly true with coffee (or any food/drink, for that matter). The research has examined caffeine consumption up to 400 mg/day. Thats about 3-5 small cups of coffee (because the caffeine content per cup varies based on where you get your coffee). At amounts higher than that, and for a healthy person, coffee may be bad for your health.
Although this is not backed by research (yet, anyway), my opinion on if coffee is bad for your health also depends on whether youre a fast or a slow metabolizer. If youre a fast metabolizer, I would venture to say that coffee is good for your health. If youre a slow metabolizer, then more likely coffee is bad for your health.
The Benefits of Coffee
Now, lets switch to a happier topic for many of you the benefits of coffee. These will give you a scientific-sounding reason to back up your addiction. Youre welcome
- The number 1 reason people drink coffee: alertness. Caffeine is a stimulant, and it makes you more alert. So does sleeping 8 hours per day, but hey, why argue minutiae. It increases the amount of adrenaline in your blood, so it makes you pay attention better.
- The stimulant effect goes not just for the mind, but also for the body. Caffeine is one of the most tried-tested-and true sports supplements. It increases endurance and power, and decreases the perceived exertion. One meta-analysis showed that caffeine consumption improved endurance by 12%.
- Might be beneficial for your blood sugar, mental health (Alzheimers, Parkinsons and depression), and liver. Might be. Some associative studies show that people who drink coffee have a lower risk of diabetes, Alzheimers, Parkinsons and depression. But associative studies dont look at cause and effect. They just look at what two events occur together. Its not saying that one event causes the other.
Although to be fair, the research is fairly mixed on the effects of coffee on any of these conditions. For every study that says coffee consumption reduces the risk of a condition, theres another study that says it has no effect. For example, one study shows a reduction in diabetes risk with increasing coffee consumption, whereas another study shows no effect. But hey, Im sure that if you love your coffee, youll just ignore the studies that say theres no benefit, and remember the studies that do show a benefit. Im glad I could help with that
Does Coffee Burn Fat?
If anything sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Drink coffee, lose fat is a great headline. Just not a correct one.
Caffeine is in many fat-burning supplements. But as I wrote in my article on fat loss supplements, most are largely ineffective.
So where does the myth that coffee burns fat come from? Two places: wishful thinking, and misinterpretation of the research.
What does the research say? One study saw an elevation in metabolism by 3-11% in response to 100 mg of caffeine (the equivalent of about 1 cup of coffee). Another study found similar results. But did short-term elevations in metabolism actually translate to long-term pounds lost? Nope.
Why dont short-term increases in metabolism translate to long-term fat loss? A few different reasons:
- Caffeine may elevate metabolism in the short term, but it may elevate appetite by the same amount.
- Maybe elevations in metabolism happen only in people who arent regular coffee drinkers, and once they start drinking coffee on a regular basis, the effect wears off, similar to coffees diuretic effect.
- Maybe elevations in metabolism only happen in people who are lean to begin with, and not overweight.
Who knows the reason behind it, but in the end, does coffee burn fat? Nope. Thats not a bad thing (water doesnt burn fat, either), just a property of coffee.
Does Coffee Count as Water Intake?
Some folks say that coffee dehydrates you. That is absolutely not true. In people who are not regular coffee drinkers, coffee has a slight diuretic effect. So if you drink 250 ml of coffee, youll only absorb about 150-200 ml of water. After youve been drinking coffee for 4 days straight or more, that effect wears off, and absorption rate increases.
So at worst, youre certainly not losing water from drinking coffee. You just might not be gaining as much as if you were to drink a caffeine-free beverage. At best, you can count coffee as water intake, and theres no difference to your hydration between coffee and water.
Is Coffee Right For You?
As you can see, coffee is a very multi-faceted topic. I preach this all the time, but each persons individuality must be considered, because as the saying goes, one mans food is another mans poison.
So how do you figure out if coffee is right for you?
Here are a few ways:
What if I told you to stop drinking coffee? Does the mere thought of stopping coffee consumption make you feel a sense of deprivation? If thats the case, chances are coffee isnt all that great for you. People usually crave what they are addicted to, and as we know, addictions arent good (but thats an entirely different topic).
But if the thought of stopping coffee consumption doesnt frighten you all that much, chances are that for you, its either neutral or beneficial.
Another way to determine the effect that coffee has on you is to cut it out for 2-4 weeks, and notice if you feel any changes. Look for changes in energy levels, bowel movements, sleep patterns, skin, weight and body fat.
If there are changes, chances are you were going through withdrawal, so coffee isnt good for you at the quantities that you were drinking it.
If you didnt feel a difference, chances are that coffee is either neutral or beneficial for you.
Theres a good case to be made for cycling coffee. That is, you drink it 1-2 times per week, when you really need it. Or you drink it for 3 weeks, and dont drink it for 1 week.
Just as with anything, the more often you use it, the less pronounced the effect. A person having their first cigarette gets a very significant effect. By the time someone has been a smoker for 10 years, they might need an entire pack to have the same effect as 1 cigarette did their very first time.
Coffee is the same. The more you use it, the less of an effect it has. But if you periodically stop using it, you can keep the beneficial effects, without needing higher and higher amounts.
Lastly, there is my favorite test:
Have someone who is trained in using body fat calipers measure your umbilical skinfold (it looks like this). Then stop drinking coffee for 2-4 weeks. Do not change anything else in your nutrition. This is critical. After this 2-4 week period, have your skinfold re-measured. Ive seen some clients drop a noticeable amount of fat simply by making this one change. Ive seen others make no change.
If youre the person who dropped body fat simply by stopping your coffee consumption, chances are that its not good for you. If your body fat didnt change, chances are that it doesnt have a negative effect on you (although I wouldnt go strictly by body fat. Id take into account other factors, like your symptoms).
By itself (without cream or sugar), coffee doesnt have any calories. So why would it affect your weight? Because different people vary in how coffee affects their hunger and appetite. For some people it stimulates appetite, and in others, it suppresses it.
Now, my friend, you know more about coffee than you did before this article. Wanna help me out a bit, and in the process show all your friends what an intellectual you are, by reading informative (and may I say witty) articles, like this one? If you could share this article on your social media of choice, Ill love you forever and ever. Just copy the link for this article.
