Are you an excessive coffee drinker? Do you justify your daily fix by saying that it helps you focus at work or helps you while you’re trying to lose weight? Well, you may be one of the majority of the population. But did you know that when you drink caffeine your body releases even more stress hormones, accelerating weight gain and making you feelguiltless?
Some studies state that excessive caffeine can have a significantly negative impact on your health. But is it really worth it? After all, a can of coffee still has more caffeine in it than many of the alternative caffeine sources out there. Here are a few of the negative side effects of drinking excessive amounts of coffee that you may not have realized.
A recent elaborate study that was conducted at the University of Colorado in Boulder examined the effects of caffeine on weight loss. The researchers gave a group of overweight volunteers drinking coffee three times a day, and another group of overweight volunteers drinking it decaf. All of the volunteers were female, and the caffeine amounts were between 300 and 600 mg.
The results were frank and shocking. The caffeine group gained on average 25.6 lbs, while the control group lost an average of 22.7 lbs. In addition, the caffeine group also showed signs of increased stress, and lowered self esteem.
While it is clear that caffeine negatively impacts your weight loss efforts, is it really bad news? Are you ready to throw in the towel and tell your friends and family that you’re having none of that coffee and soda?
Because it turns out that caffeine may not be the boogie man you’ve always believed you were. A recent article in Time Magazine points out that caffeine may not be as horrible as you’ve come to believe. The new article leans heavily on a study done at the University of pressure ulcer holding a press conference last week. The researchers claim that active people who drink moderate amounts of caffeinated coffee are less likely to develop ulcers. In addition, the study showed that caffeine can be an effective treatment for those who suffer from chronic stress, and are consequently much more likely to develop stress-related diseases.
What are you going to do now? Are you going to pull out those caffeine-laced cereal rinses and throw in the towel?
No, I’m not going to try and give you 4 or 6 cups of coffee a day. I’m not even going to discuss the widely-held belief that caffeine makes you more alert, although that may be partially true.
I’m going to take a look at 3 key benefits that you can receive from moderate coffee drinking.
- tongues a werry
Coffee contains a fair amount of caffeine. An ideal amount for a small amount of caffeine. In other words a little. If you require a daily source of caffeine. You’ll probably find it easier to drink coffee that contains 0.5 mg on a daily basis. You can get your coffee, tea and chocolate fix in the morning, with no need to add additional caffeine. This is brilliant. It means you can drink coffee a couple of times per day and still get your jump on the sugar-free fueling.
- adrenalin junkie DAMN IT I CAN’T Caffeine gives you a rush. I still remember what it looked like from way back when I was young. I was convinced that caffeine gave me a temporary boost of energy. I was wrong. It didn’t wake me up or anything. It was more like I got a quick burst of energy and then I was just fine. The more common alternative is to drink a pre-workout supplement. If you’re not doing anything significant for your health alternative a quick energy boost is fine. I still respect anyone who does this.
- caffeine free nutritionally sound
OK, so I took a few of these and made excuses to not add them to my diet. But this stuff is ridiculously easy to add. I found it is about as easy as 1, 2, 3. There’s nothing sweet about it. So there’s no sugar, artificial or not. If there was sugar in these products it would be the same as table sugar. It is also sweeter than table sugar. But it is still more effective than artificial sugars. I think the best part is that there’s zero calorie garbage in it.
- caffeine gives solace
For all of the people who deny there is a caffeine problem, you can give this stuff up. No worries. I know lots of people who do not drink anything but coffee. And they are doing fine. It’s only YOU who who knows there’s a caffeine problem. There’s nothing you can do about it.
- caffeine free recipes
Once you start to get a good taste of caffeine free products, you’ll be interested to try a few others.
Karl Simon Physician Assistant 