Coffee...Love It or Leave It.

Ahh yes…who can survive without their freshly brewed cup of coffee!! The average American downs about 3 cups of coffee each day and that number is steadily growing. Even the size of the “cups” are getting larger and larger. In fact, this past weekend I stopped at Wawa coming home from ocean city and a woman was filling up one of those monstrous 64 oz plastic mugs with a deep roasted brew. Of course you don’t see that every day and so I couldn’t pass up such a glorious opportunity. As I walked by her I stopped and said, “that’s a lot of coffee you got there mam” to which she replied, “Yup, and I’m gonna drink all before I fall asleep tonight”. The conversation ended as quickly as it started by me saying, “You won’t be falling asleep tonight!”.

Aimee, I’m sure that you are very much aware that for some people, coffee is a necessity for daily functioning. There are of course arguments from both sides, in which some have very good validity. Before I state a few facts about coffee, my advice for everyone is Moderation. Our bodies are well equipped to take in and digest a multitude of natural things such as the seeds of coffea Arabica (coffee), but too much of anything can stress out the body.

In my weight lifting days, I was told two things about coffee from two different sources. One person told me that an apple has just as much caffeine in it as coffee and so that would obviously be the better choice. Well, with comments like that It makes me wonder if the guy ever graduated because apples don’t even have caffeine in them! So that is a total myth. Apples are a good source of carbohydrates and contain various enzymes that work similar to effects of coffee but do it in a much different way.

The other bit of information that was passed along to me was that bodybuilders often down a cup of coffee before heading out on stage because it helps to tighten up the muscles. That in fact is not a myth. Caffeine blocks adenosine, which is a chemical that makes you naturally drowsy. In doing so its constricts the brain's blood vessels, the heart beats rate increases, muscles tighten, the blood pressure booms, blood vessels near the surface constrict and more blood flows to the muscles. But the long term effects can be really tricky. Once the temporary stimulation stops, the brain cells start needing caffeine for stimulation and a sudden neural sluggishness installs.

Ok, so let me just give you some positives and negatives.

Positives:

1. 2-3 cups of coffee a day seem to have minimal to no long term effects on your body.

2. Caffeine has been found also to protect against Parkinson’s disease and depression, which is most likely related to its inhibiting effect on adenosine receptors. Depression is eased because caffeine increases dopamine. Dopamine is the happy feeling hormone produced in the brain.

3. It boosts mood, alertness, and physical performance. However, let me make this clear. Alertness may be enhanced for the perpetual coffee drinker due to the fact that brain cells need to be continually stimulated, but studies show that compared to a non-coffee drinker it does not give them an upper hand in alertness or concentration.

4. Coffee can be used as a laxative if need be.

5. In moderate amounts, it can help decrease post-gym muscle pain.

Negatives:

1. It causes sleep disturbances. Caffeine needs about 12 hours or so to be fully pushed out of your system.

2. It does in fact raise blood pressure.

3. Irritates the stomach lining.

3. And this is in my opinion the worst…More than three cups per day for years, increases loss of bone mineral density. Caffeine is a mild diuretic, speeding up the urination cycle, but "steals" calcium which is lost through urine. Long term, heavy caffeine use leads to a rapid development of osteoporosis.

So, to finally answer your question.

Your body doesn’t need caffeine to function properly and if you choose to stop in taking it, do it gradually or else your blood pressure will plummet and the blood vessels in your head will dilate giving you an extreme migraine. If you can get passed the caffeine withdraw, the best thing you can do for your body in the morning to wake you up is to down a 12-16oz glass of chilled water within 30-40 minutes. On a non-workout day, you also want to eat a healthy breakfast that contains no more than 450 calories.

Medical Fact #3:

If you yelled continuously for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.