I’m a coffee drinker and forever will be. I don’t care what you tell me, I love (and need) my one cup a day. BUT I also consider myself a smart coffee drinker…
I don’t mean that coffee makes me smarter (although its stimulatory effects do help), I mean that I’m strategic about when I drink it.
Coffee has a lot of great benefits, but it also has a few flaws. So if you are an ignorance is bliss kind of person, I advise you to scroll to the bottom of this post.
Flaw #1: Caffeine makes it more difficult to absorb dietary calcium from your intestines due to its acidic pH
Coffee hack: Consume fruits or veggies when you drink coffee (aka don’t just eat toast with your morning coffee, mix in a banana or a smoothie too).
Why? Fruits and veg have a more basic pH, as they contain potassium which neutralises the lumen of your intestines, and helps you absorb calcium (5).
Added tip: If you take a calcium supplement, consume it a few hours after drinking your coffee to make sure you can absorb as much of it as possible.
Flaw #2: Coffee beans contain two molecules (called cafestol and kahweol) that can increase your LDL-cholesterol by up to 30%
Coffee Hack: Drink filtered coffee! Paper filters will remove these molecules, so if you’re more of a French press or espresso fan, you can also filter those before drinking (2). If you’re having trouble lowering your LDL-Cholesterol levels with doctor’s orders, add this trick in, and you should see your blood levels decrease!
One last tip before I get to the pro’s of coffee:
Be sure to not over consume coffee regularly (i.e. two or more a day), because once the caffeine is absorbed into your blood, it will eventually deplete your bone mineral density if you have too much on a regular basis (10). If you need to have a few coffee binges to get through some intense times of work or school, this shouldn’t have too much of an impact (2). Just don’t turn it into a habit of having more than two cups a day regularly.
Health benefits of coffee:
Weight loss– caffeine spares muscle glycogen and can help flip the switch from using glucose as your body’s fuel source, to fat- especially when combined with moderate physical activity (6, 9).
Sports enhancing– caffeine is shown to increase power output, decrease fatigue and increase aerobic running capacity (6, 7, 12).
Protects against diabetes– seen in both caffeinated and non caffeinated. The proposed reason to this is due to the polyphenols in coffee which have shown to have a protective effect on glucose and fat metabolism, and decrease insulin resistance (2).
Cognition– In a study looking at caffeinated coffee vs non-caffeinated vs placebo: Caffeinated had the most impact on alertness and decreased reaction time, but decaf coffee still had higher levels of these compared to placebo. SO this means that it’s not just the caffeine as the main active ingredient in coffee, many of the other polyphenolic compounds play an important role in overall cognitive enhancement (4).
Bottom line: Coffee isn’t bad! Just make sure to stick to one a day, follow those hacks I told you about, and you will be able to keep withstanding your perky early-rising coworkers without going crazy.
References:
- Ahn, H.y., et al. “Inhibitory Effects of Caffeine on Contractions and Calcium Movement in Vascular and Intestinal Smooth Muscle.” British Journal of Pharmacology, vol. 93, no. 2, 1988, pp. 267–274., doi:10.1111/j.1476-5381.1988.tb11430.x.
- Bhn, Siv K, et al. “Effects of Tea and Coffee on Cardiovascular Disease Risk.” Food Funct., vol. 3, no. 6, 2012, pp. 575–591., doi:10.1039/c2fo10288a
- Cai L, Ma D, Zhang Y, Liu Z, Wang P. The effect of coffee consumption on serum lipids: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2012 Aug;66(8):872-7
- Haskell-Ramsay, Crystal, et al. “The Acute Effects of Caffeinated Black Coffee on Cognition and Mood in Healthy Young and Older Adults.” Nutrients, vol. 10, no. 10, 2018, p. 1386., doi:10.3390/nu10101386.
- Heaney, R.p. “Effects of Caffeine on Bone and the Calcium Economy.” Food and Chemical Toxicology, vol. 40, no. 9, 2002, pp. 1263–1270., doi:10.1016/s0278-6915(02)00094
- Institute of Medicine. 2001. Caffeine for the Sustainment of Mental Task Performance: Formulations for Military Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10219.
- Mora-Rodríguez, Ricardo, et al. “Caffeine Ingestion Reverses the Circadian Rhythm Effects on Neuromuscular Performance in Highly Resistance-Trained Men.” PLoS ONE, vol. 7, no. 4, 2012, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033807.
- Naidoo N, Chen C, Rebello SA, Speer K, Tai ES, Lee J, Buchmann S, Koelling-Speer I, van Dam RM. Cholesterol-raising diterpenes in types of coffee commonly consumed in Singapore, Indonesia and India and associations with blood lipids: a survey and cross sectional study. Nutr J. 2011 May 15;10:48.
- Norager, C. B., et al. “Metabolic Effects of Caffeine Ingestion and Physical Work in 75‐Year Old Citizens. A Randomized, Double‐Blind, Placebo‐Controlled, Cross‐over Study.” Clinical Endocrinology, vol. 65, no. 2, 2006, pp. 223–228., doi:10.1111/j.1365-2265.2006.02579.x.
- Rapuri, Prema B, et al. “Caffeine Intake Increases the Rate of Bone Loss in Elderly Women and Interacts with Vitamin D Receptor Genotypes.” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 74, no. 5, 2001, pp. 694–700., doi:10.1093/ajcn/74.5.694.
- Rojo-Ruiz, Jonathan, et al. “Caffeine Chelates Calcium in the Lumen of the Endoplasmic Reticulum.” Biochemical Journal, vol. 475, no. 22, 2018, pp. 3639–3649., doi:10.1042/bcj20180532.
- Shephard, R.j. “Caffeinated Chewing Gum Increases Repeated Sprint Performance and Augments Increases in Testosterone in Competitive Cyclists.” Yearbook of Sports Medicine, vol. 2011, 2011, pp. 178–179., doi:10.1016/j.yspm.2011.02.004.
- Urgert R, Katan MB. The cholesterol-raising factor from coffee beans. Annu Rev Nutr. 1997;17:305-24.
