Coffee is delicious, warm (or cold if you prefer), invigorating, and magical to many people. It is the first thing they think about in the morning, and maybe the main thing they look forward to in the afternoon or early evening. It keeps you focused, energized, motivated, and fast.
However, there can be some problems with drinking too much coffee. In fact, not only coffee, but certain teas, most energy drinks, and many of the world’s favorite sodas. If you drink any of those, or other drinks with caffeine, you know how much you crave it through the day (or night). It seems to be almost an addiction, right? It probably is, and this article will explain more about that later.
Before we list the pros and cons of caffeine, it should be noted that soda is a poor choice to try and get health benefits. That is because most of them come from beneficial ingredients in coffee and tea.
Here is a list of potential health benefits to ingesting coffee and teas:
1. It helps improve your brain function. Caffeine increases levels of dopamine and norepinephrine, which improves the firing of neurons in the brain. Based on many studies, caffeine can improve memory, energy, alertness, mental function, reaction times, and mood.
2. It contains antioxidants and vitamin B2. Antioxidants can help fight off diseases, cancer, and more. Vitamin B12 is also called Riboflavin. This vitamin helps the body break down carbohydrates, fats, and protein to produce the body’s energy. It helps the body get oxygen as well.
3. Promotes burning of fat in the body. Some people have a metabolism boost between 3 to 11 percent compared to when they don’t drink caffeine. This helps the body break down fats
4. Lowers risk and severity of depression. Some scientific studies showed that coffee drinkers are much less depressed than those who didn’t drink coffee.
These are just some of the many benefits that coffee could provide to your overall health. Although that may seem like a good case for caffeine, there are some problems that you should know about. The more caffeine you drink, the more likely the issues below will happen.
Health disadvantages to drinking caffeine:
1. You can get addicted. Talk about feeling sick if you don’t have it. Caffeine withdrawl can really mess up your week. Symptoms that usually happen when you stop drinking caffeine suddenly are migraines or headaches, anxiety, depression, poor concentration, fatigue, or tremors. Those effects can last up to 9 days from when you had your last cup of coffee, tea, or last soda.
2. Caffeine can increase blood pressure, blood flow, and body temperature.
3. Caffeine can increase blood sugar levels by releasing sugars from the liver after consumption. If blood sugars get too high, blood sugars will eventually crash and cause hypoglycemia. This can be life threatening.
4. Caffeine can increase secretion of stomach acid, act as a diuretic and increase urine production, and cause sleep deprivation.
5. Caffeine can give you diarrhea, nausea, drowsiness, irritability, anxiety, muscle problems, appetite changes, blurry vision, and more.
6. Caffeine and certain beverages like coffee and tea can block absorption of certain nutrients. If you don’t get enough of the nutrients in your body, it could cause problems and make you sick. For example, anemia and iron supplements don’t mix with coffee or tea.
Now that you know the secrets of caffeine, we hope you can make better decisions for yourself and your body. Enjoy your drinks, and consider decaf if you would like to keep the flavor and some other benefits of coffee or tea. It is up to you to weigh the options and what’s right for you.
