Care with Caffeine

Many people around the world wake up to the morning habit of a cup of coffee. Most of us these days probably also know that the caffeine in coffee is both a stimulant and a diuretic. As an avid coffee fan (probably recovering addict) turned health nut, I have read literally countless articles on how good or bad coffee is for you. Interestingly, it’s been very difficult to come to a definitive yes or no answer.

It seems one or two cups of coffee a day aren’t really damaging to you health if you are otherwise well and have a balanced diet. On the other hand, if you can stomach the equivalent of around 100 cups of coffee a day it is known to be lethal. I wonder who was the test dummy for that experiment? “Sorry Bob, this is a responsible service cafe and we cannot let you go past 99 cups or you’ll die!” The problem is, no-one has been able to draw a line between healthy and unhealthy somewhere in there between two cups and one hundred.

This brings me once again to the subject of so-called energy drinks. Several (certainly not all) of these drinks contain caffeine levels four times or more than that of coffee at a similar serving volume. Thus not knowing where the good/bad line with caffeine is can be risky for voracious consumers of energy drinks even though the 100 “cuppa” rule seems ridiculous. What I am saying is, why risk it?

There have been times in my dark days while studying, when I would stay up late for a deadline and continually abuse coffee until I literally got anxiety and heart palpitations. There was no way this was caused by anything other than the caffeine. I used to get up and go for a 1-hour-plus walk to work the tension out of my system, then resume my quest for academic glory. Daily over-stimulation of one’s nervous system like this cannot be good in the long term, not to mention the dehydration from urinating all the time from the diuretic effect.

There is another dark side to a dark roast; acid. Coffee consumption is one of the most acid-forming intakes you can have. This makes maintaining a healthy pH balance in your body very difficult, if not impossible. Milk is also quite acid-forming so that latte or cappuccino comes at a heavy pH cost. Several a day and you are far too acidic for optimum health.

As mentioned in previous posts when you are too acidic your body tries to make you more alkaline so it cleverly drags alkalising compounds like minerals out of your bones and other storage points. This can slowly manifest in serious imbalances in the body which cause equally serious diseases. Me, I stick to one coffee per day and cannot even see the sense in energy drinks. Zero coffee may be better but I’m human, I love the taste, and I want to remember where I came from. I have replaced my “other” coffees with herbal teas (check for caffeine with these as well), water and freshly pressed fruit and veggie juices. I have not felt better in a long time.

Hydration

Most people know to some degree how important hydration is, but how many of us actually manage our hydration properly? Popular diets usually instruct followers to consume at least 1.5 litres of water a day or more. Many of the molecules in our body are made up of Carbon (C), Hydrogen (H) and Oxygen (O) atoms and we all know water is H2O. Catabolic (breaking down) processes in the body often create water as a by-product which passes out of the body through urine and sweat (around 2 litres). Anabolic processes (construction) require water to form new molecules to replace those lost and for healing and growth. So it’s not just enough to know that our bodies are over 50% water, it’s also good to understand the importance of water at are more fundamental level. Minute to minute and hour to hour the balance is thus critical to our health.

Unfortunately, modern diets aren’t always conducive to good hydration. Diuretics like coffee are increasing in popularity. Alcohol consumption is also a great concern. Soft drinks (sodas) remain popular and the salts (sodium, potassium, etc.) and caffeine in them play havoc with hydration. Not to mention so-called “energy drinks” many of which are loaded with caffeine. Worse still, we have young people mixing energy drinks with alcohol – a double whammy of dehydration, coupled with stimulant and anti-stimulant properties! All these drinks are making your body fight against dehydration. As your body wages this battle, it cleverly tries to protect critical things like brain function, blood volume, waste removal, etc. So, to do this when you are dehydrated it takes from elsewhere. If you have regular headaches, muscle pains and cramps, erratic thinking and concentration, poor bowel movements and so on, chances are you are simply dehydrated.

Ah, what to do? “I don’t like drinking heaps of water Jason, it’s boring, tasteless, etc.” you say. Well there are other options. Limit your alcohol to a couple of glasses a week. Enjoy only one or two cups of coffee a day. Try and mix this with alternatives like herbal teas, fruit juices, vegetable juices, rice milk, almond milk… and just plain water! If you mix it up a bit, you may just have one a day from each of these categories and if you do have coffee you will appreciate it much more as a real treat. Also try to eat more fluid-friendly foods such as fruit and vegetables. Junk foods are not only fattening, but the salt and sugar content can leave you quite dehydrated.