Over the prior few decades, there have been many thousands – almost 20,000 – studies that focused on coffee.
While, overall, the health benefits of drinking coffee do slightly outweigh the negatives (though, this line of thought depends on your point of view and your situation in life), as it is with everything in life, for the most part, the key is to do it, at least in some cases, in moderation.
The majority of Americans, though most certainly not all, drink between two and four cups (one cup = eight ounces/ 250ml) of coffee each day. This is regarded as “moderate” consumption.
Current research would say that’s ideal – ideal to enjoy the many benefits of drinking coffee, and ideal to avoid the bad side of coffee drinking.
Let’s now have a look at the advantages and the disadvantages of drinking coffee.
Advantages of Drinking Coffee
Note that one cup is equivalent to eight fluid ounces (250 ml).
1 Reduces type 2 diabetes
In this case – the reduction of diabetes via drinking coffee – avid coffee drinkers will be happy to learn that it’s not so much about moderation.
Studies have demonstrated that four cups of coffee per day or even more than four cups of coffee each day helps to lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
It is thought that the quinines and cholorogenic acids in coffee – both are antioxidants – boost a sensitivity to insulin in cells.
In turn, this helps in the regulation of blood sugar.
It is thought that while caffeinated coffee is good, decaffeinated coffees are even better at reducing the potential for diabetes type 2.
2 Benefits to the heart
In this case it is about moderate coffee drinking – it is about drinking around one to three cups of coffee a day.
And for doing so, you could enjoy the benefits of having a lower propensity to strokes than those who do not consume coffee.
Again, it’s down to the antioxidant content, which could be helpful to reducing the damaging impact of inflammation on arteries.
Some scientists think that the activation of nitric oxide in the body is given a boost. Nitric oxide widens the blood vessels.
Any more than five cups of coffee per day and it is thought that this sabotages the positive impact that antioxidants could have.
3 Liver benefits
It could be – emphasis on “could” – that drinking quite a lot of coffee per day lowers not only the potential for cirrhosis, but also potentially lowers the possibilities of getting various other liver diseases, too.
How much is “quite a lot of coffee per day”?
In the analysis of nine separate studies, for each two-cup increase in coffee consumption per day, it led to a 43 percent decrease in the risk of getting liver cancer.
Why? Antioxidants to the rescue yet again.
Chlorogenic and caffeic acids are thought to help with the reduction of liver inflammation in addition to inhibiting the growth of cancer cells.
4 Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia
Moderation wins the day here. Between one and five cups per day.
And it’s possible that drinking coffee moderately each day could be helpful in reducing the risk of Parkinson’s disease, of Alzheimer’s disease, and of other types of dementia.
Antioxidants found in coffee could be responsible for preventing brain cell damage and boosting the impact of neurotransmitters that aid cognitive function.
It has been noted in scientific studies that when the intake of coffee (and tea) rises, the incidence of a type of brain cancer called glioma reduces.
Speculation is that compounds found in both coffee and in tea could bring about an activation of cell proteins that help in repairing DNA.
This repairing of DNA could lower the possibility of more cells becoming cancerous.
Disadvantages of Drinking Coffee
1 Anxious and irritable
If you do have a sensitivity to caffeine, you can become anxious and irritable if you consume it in high doses. Mind you, only you can determine what a high dose is as it varies from one person to another.
How does this occur?
Caffeine from coffee (and tea) binds to nerve cell receptors – in this case, the adenosine receptors.
In turn, this permits little to no adenosine to enter into nerve cells.
The activity of the nerve cells speeds up and this causes constriction of blood vessels.
Constriction of blood vessels encourages the caffeine “buzz” which, for you, could mean nothing more, and nothing less, than irritable jitters.
For those that drink caffeine often, you can develop a high level of tolerance to the jitters.
However, you’ll need to have a regular caffeine fix if you do that.
What’s more, if you do that, your body will adapt, and it will adapt by making more adenosine receptors.
This way, you’ll be all the more sensitive to adenosine and its effects.
Can’t get your daily fix of caffeine?
It’s likely that you’ll have withdrawal symptoms. You could experience splitting headaches (due to contraction of blood vessels) and extreme fatigue.
2 Higher cholesterol
Not all cholesterol is a bad thing.
However, unfiltered or boiled coffee – examples being Turkish-style coffees and French press – consist of higher levels of something called cafestol.
What’s cafestol?
It’s a compound found in the human body that can increase LDL. LDL is not the type of cholesterol that you want to have.
So, to avoid this scenario, best to opt for filtered coffees instead. Drip coffee makers do the job here.
3 Devoid of sleep
Are you a problem sleeper?
Do you drink a lot of coffee?
You’ll already know that consuming too much caffeine can impact your sleep in a way that you don’t want it to be impacted.
In general, the rule is that for caffeine to get out of your system it takes around six hours.
Thus, if you coffee binge in the morning, and don’t partake in the evening, your sleep will not be affected.
4 Pregnant or nursing
For you, if you are pregnant, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology states that you can drink coffee moderately. Moderately, in this case, means around two cups daily.
Nevertheless, if you drink much more than those two cups daily, you could be placing yourself at risk of miscarriage.
For you, if you are a nursing mom, be aware that caffeine may pass into your breast milk.
If your baby is a restless or irritable baby, try cutting down on your daily caffeine intake.
Image by Kirill Averianov from Pixabay