Hi there! This is Monica Reinagel and you’re listening to the Nutrition Diva: Quick and Dirty Tips for Eating Well and Feeling Fabulous. Today’s nutrition tip is that for most people, caffeine probably does more good than harm.

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Ever notice that smug look people get when they tell you they don’t “do” caffeine? As if they are somehow morally superior? There’s no need to feel guilty about your little coffee habit. In fact, the caffeine addicts of the world may have the last laugh.

It turns out that caffeine has a lot of positive health benefits and, despite what you may have heard, relatively few drawbacks.

People who drink coffee every day, for example, have a significantly lower risk of diabetes, Parkinson’s, colon cancer, gallstones, and Alzheimer’s disease. Now, that may not all be due to caffeine. Coffee contains a lot of volatile compounds and antioxidants that may have beneficial effects by themselves, or in combination with caffeine.

For example, drinking tea doesn’t seem to reduce your risk of diabetes, even though tea contains caffeine. On the other hand, people who drink decaffeinated coffee do have a reduced risk, but decaf only seems to work about half as well as caffeinated coffee.

It’s definitely the caffeine that’s protects against Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, though. Not only does caffeine stimulate the brain and central nervous system, but it appears to protect it as well. Caffeine doesn’t make you any smarter but it does makes you more alert and boosts your ability to concentrate, which can make you a better test taker or a better driver.

Note that caffeine is not an antidote to liquor, however. If you (or one of your guests) has had too much to drink, having a cup or two of coffee won’t make you (or them) fit to drive. You’re far better off skipping the coffee and sleeping it off instead. If you wake up the next morning with a headache, caffeine can help treat it. In fact, the popular headache medicine Excedrin contains as much caffeine as a big cup of coffee.

Caffeine also enhances athletic performance. In fact, up until recently, caffeine was considered a performance-enhancing drug by the International Olympic Committee and athletes had to keep their intake of caffeinated beverages fairly low to pass their drug screens. Unlike most performance-enhancing drugs, you can safely try this one at home. Have a cup or two of coffee one hour before your workout and you may be able to go a bit faster, stronger, and longer.

Myths about Caffeine

Many of the negative things you’ve heard about caffeine are actually myths, several of which I’ve debunked in previous shows.

It’s a myth, for example, that caffeine can increase pain, tenderness, or benign lumps in the breast, also called fibrocystic changes. Trial after trial has found no connection.  It’s also a myth that caffeine weakens your bones, as I explained in episode # 25, in which I talked about nutrition for healthy bones.

And, as I explained in episode #6, which was on the dehydration myth, caffeinated beverages are not dehydrating. Caffeine is a diuretic, meaning that it makes you pee more. But the fluids in coffee and tea more than replace any fluids that you lose due to the diuretic effect. Keep in mind, though, that caffeine pills don’t contain any fluids and, therefore, can be dehydrating.

Finally, you might have heard that caffeine or coffee is bad for your heart. Some studies have found that drinking unfiltered coffee—such as French press or percolated coffee—elevates cholesterol. It appears to be volatile oils in the coffee rather than caffeine that affect cholesterol, and only in men. But coffee drinkers are no more likely to develop heart disease. And although caffeinated coffee can temporarily increase your heart rate a bit, it does not cause irregular heartbeat.

Downside of Caffeine

There are some legitimate downsides of caffeine but they are relatively minor. Some people find that too much caffeine makes them jittery, anxious, or disrupts their sleep. How many cups of coffee it takes to make your hair stand on end, or how late in the day you can drink a cup of coffee without staring at the ceiling all night, are subject to a high degree of individual variation..

If you drink coffee or other caffeinated beverages regularly, you’re much less likely to experience any negative side effects from caffeine. That’s because caffeine is highly habituating. Some might even say it’s addictive, although that seems a little harsh.

The biggest problem with being habituated to caffeine is that you might feel a little sleepy or headachey if you suddenly swear off it. These withdrawal symptoms are harmless and usually last only a few days. Or, you can make it easier on yourself by tapering your consumption off over the course of a couple of weeks. But hey, if it’s not broken, why fix it?

A Few Reasons to Avoid Caffeine

People who are very sensitive to stimulants are usually better off avoiding caffeine altogether. In addition, caffeine does appear to negatively affect the growth and development of babies in the womb, so it’s also off-limits for pregnant women.

Although caffeine doesn’t cause heart disease, it can temporarily increase your heart rate and your blood pressure. So, people who already have heart problems and who are sensitive to caffeine may want to avoid it. Even if there’s only a small possibility that a jolt of caffeine will trigger an event, many feel it’s just not worth the risk!

For everyone else, moderate consumption of caffeine appears to have a lot of benefits and limited disadvantages. The alert listener will have noted that I have once again invoked the “M” word: Moderation. Here are your parameters for moderate caffeine consumption:

The benefits of caffeine start kicking in when you consume a cup of coffee or a couple of cups of black tea every day. The positive effects really start piling up when you drink three or four cups of coffee a day or the equivalent. People who drink seven or eight cups a day may get even a little more benefit but also have a higher risk of ill effects. And more than that is not advisable.

To find out how much caffeine is in different types of tea, coffee, chocolate, and soda, see the show notes at nutritiondiva.quickanddirtytips.com. I’ll also include some links to more information on caffeine and health.

Visit audiblepodcast.com/diva to pick out your free audiobook download. Choose from over 40,000 titles, including great books about food, nutrition, and health. I highly recommend Michael Pollan’s best-selling book, In Defense of Food, as well as Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Or, fix yourself a nice cup of tea and listen to Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson. Your first download is free. Visit audiblepodcast.com/diva for details.

Administrative

This is Monica Reinagel, the Nutrition Diva, reminding you that these tips are provided for your information and are not intended as medical advice. Because everyone is different, please work with your health professional to determine what’s right for you. Get Nutrition Diva and other great shows from Quick and Dirty Tips streamed directly to your iPhone with Stitcher. Download it for free at Stitcher.com.

Have a great day and eat something good for me!

RESOURCES:

Coffee: The New Health Food? (WebMD)

Could Coffee Reduce the Risk of Alzheimer’s? (About.com—Alzheimer’s)

Coffee and Cholesterol (MSNBC)

Caffeine and Athletic Performance (Active.com)

Caffeine Containing Products (Mayo Clinic)