If you drink coffee at any regular level, then you’ve probably wondered to yourself if this habit is actually good for you. After all, we’ve all heard some version of the advice to avoid too much caffeine. But coffee is more than just it’s caffeine levels, and there are some health benefits to consuming it. But if you’re interested in drinking coffee with health in mind, then you would do well to monitor the amount of coffee you’re drinking.
In this article, we’ll go through some of the benefits and potential detriments to your health that coffee brings. We’ll finish up with a brief guideline of best practices when it comes to drinking coffee with health in mind.
Disclaimer: Before we get into all that, please understand that this article is no substitute for consulting with a trusted health professional. While we do cite our sources, we are a humble blog. So please talk to your doctor(s) about safe coffee drinking habits if you have questions or concerns.
Coffee’s Health Benefits
Undeniably, drinking coffee regularly offers several benefits to your health. The Mayo Clinic reports that people who regularly drink coffee have lower risks of Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. They also have lower risk of various afflictions related to the liver and kidneys. Some of these changes are linked to caffeine, others coffee specifically.
But there are other health benefits to regular caffeine intake, including lower risk of strokes, improved mood, and lower rates of depression. At least one recent study suggests that coffee drinking can be linked to extended healthy aging.
That’s quite a lot of heavy lifting coffee does to keep us healthy, or at least, healthier than we might otherwise be. But as with many things, it’s not quite as simple as that. No doctor would recommend that you should drink copious amounts of coffee every day in order to maximize these effects. In fact, what most health professionals recommend is controlled amounts of coffee.
Be Mindful of Caffeine Intake
First, let’s talk about the most obvious factor: caffeine. Caffeine of course being the stimulant in coffee that keeps you feeling alert. Colloquially, we like to say that caffeine gives you high energy. More precisely, caffeine blocks adenosine receptors. Adenosine is a hormone that communicates to your brain that the body is tired. Caffeine essentially stops that message from being received. It’s worth remembering that caffeine doesn’t actually give you high energy. It just fools your brain into thinking that you do.
That’s not to say that caffeine is bad in and of itself. Like we’ve already mentioned, regular caffeine intake has several health benefits. But doctors recommend that you monitor the amount of caffeine you’re ingesting. According to the Food and Drug Administration, 400 milligrams of caffeine a day is the threshold for safe consumption. For context, that’s 2-3 typical cups of coffee per day. That sounds like a pretty manageable amount!
Too Much Caffeine is Bad for You
But there are some conditions worth keeping in mind. First, caffeine is found in a lot of food and drinks. In addition to coffee beans, you can find caffeine in tea leaves, cacao beans, and other fruits, not to mention a fair number of sodas. That means that have to consider your intake of tea, chocolate, and soda as well as coffee. And if you’ve ever consumed one of the many energy drinks on the market, you’ll know that those are loaded with caffeine too. Even some common medications have caffeine in their ingredient list.
Consuming too much caffeine can lead to a lot of health problems in the short-term and the long-term. Caffeine raises blood pressure and heart rate. It can cause or exacerbate insomnia. And it can interfere with some medications. For all these reasons, it’s recommended that you pay attention to how much caffeine you put into your body. If you’re feeling jittery, anxious, or sick from caffeine, then stop drinking it, and let your body metabolize what you’ve already had.
Be Mindful of High Acidity
Second, let’s discuss the high levels of acidity in coffee and the potential effects on your health. For folks with heartburn or other related digestive conditions, the acidity in coffee can exacerbate symptoms. The writer of this article has to manage his acid reflux, and one the ways he does so is limiting the amount of coffee he drinks at a time.
Another area of concern with the acid in coffee is your dental hygiene. According to the Oak Grove Dental Center, acid weakens the enamel on your teeth and can encourage the development of cavities. Teeth can yellow and stain due to frequent coffee intake. Because of this, you should consider not drinking coffee too close to when you brush your teeth. And you should drink water frequently to neutralize the enamel-wearing effects of acid. The writer of this article has had it recommend that you swirl water directly after finishing a cup of coffee to help with this.
Be Mindful of Your Bladder
Finally, speaking of water, it’s important to know that drinking coffee does for hydration levels. To be a little more frank about it, a lot of coffee drinking can affect how frequently you have to use the bathroom and how much you have to expel from your bladder. You may have noticed that you have to pee more often if you’ve had a lot coffee to drink.
In addition to frequent peeing, drinking too much coffee can irritate your bladder and, perhaps paradoxically, dehydrate you. Understandably, drinking water in addition to coffee can help with hydration, but it will do nothing to stop frequent urination. Keeping your coffee drinking to a moderate level can help keep your patterns normal.
Best Practices
So far, we’ve listed out some of the health benefits and potential detriments of drinking coffee. Thankfully, most medical professionals don’t have an issue with drinking coffee at a moderate level, and many encourage it! Here are what we consider some best practices when it comes to drinking coffee with health in mind.
- Drink coffee in small to moderate servings. Don’t overload your system with too much caffeine at once.
- Skew towards the morning when it comes to daily consumption. Having caffeine too late in the day can negatively affect your sleep patterns.
- Drink water after coffee to neutralize the effects of coffee’s acid on your teeth.
- Stop drinking coffee if you start feeling jittery, anxious, or sick in any way.
- When in doubt, opt for less caffeine. If you’re preparing or ordering coffee but aren’t sure if it’ll be too much, go for a decaf option. Decaf is underrated!
We hope that this article has been a helpful guide to the relationship between coffee and our health. Our goal as coffee lovers and purveyors is to build community around coffee. And we believe that means supporting one another in healthy coffee consumption.