So I’m 9 months pregnant and oh the looks I get when I’m carrying a cardboard, steaming cup. It’s coffee folks! You’d think I was walking around with a bottle of Jack Daniels in broad daylight. And how do YOU know it’s not decaf? Well, chances are it’s not... but that’s not the point. I must thank you, little old lady with the snide comment, for the blog influence :)!
So - coffee - good? Bad? "Moderation - huh?” Here’s the latest.
Aside from comments and looks during pregnancy, I also get clients and acquaintances alike who’ve chosen to make the “big step” of cutting out coffee. Then expect a pat on the back for it. Poor you. That’s about all I can offer. Life must suck now! Lol.
We’ve lumped coffee drinking in with unhealthy habits like drunkenness and smoking. We view the strung out, sunken-eyed, over-worked employee with a cigarette in one hand and coffee in the other as one of those “unhealthy coffee drinkers.” Looks more like a Meth addict if you ask me.
So here’s the bottom line... all recent, credible findings suggest, COFFEE drinking offers no serious detrimental health effects. In fact, if you want to improve your health, its better to focus on other lifestyle factors like, ummmm, weight loss, exercise, increasing fiber, eliminating all recreational drugs, etc ;) - instead of avoiding coffee, which can actually be helpful to your health.
Well, that’s moderate amounts right? Sure, if SIX cups a day is moderate – that’s the established upper tolerable limit – or the equivalent of about 600 mg. Its about 2 Starbucks, Grande black brew or 6 (8oz) cups of “Folgers.”
It doesn’t mean your latest high calorie “coffee concoction” either. The excessive calories will do more harm over time than the minute amount of coffee you MAY be getting somewhere under the whipped cream. And not ALL forms of caffeine, are created equal - Coffee is very complex.
Why the flip-flopping over the years? Well, we’ve just recently been able to isolate the hundreds of compounds in coffee and other potential lifestyle factors that cloud results - like lack of exercise and smoking (two things that are common with heavy coffee drinking).
Although not a miracle food, coffee can protect against Type 2 Diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, liver cancer, and liver cirrhosis. It can help with focus and thinking. New findings regarding cardiovascular benefits are currently being studied – but early findings look good there too!
Now for pregnancy. Caffeine crosses the placenta, to the fetus (unlike Sucralose and Aspartame hgm hgmmm – sorry I couldn’t resist). The fetus is very sensitive to caffeine (because it's teeny tiny) and metabolizes it very, very slowly. The position statement of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists as well as Harvard researchers, recommend less than 200 mg of caffeine a day during pregnancy (8 oz of caffeinated tea and a 12 oz soda have about 50mg, and 8 oz of coffee has about 100 mg).
So - coffee - good? Bad? "Moderation - huh?” Here’s the latest.
Aside from comments and looks during pregnancy, I also get clients and acquaintances alike who’ve chosen to make the “big step” of cutting out coffee. Then expect a pat on the back for it. Poor you. That’s about all I can offer. Life must suck now! Lol.
We’ve lumped coffee drinking in with unhealthy habits like drunkenness and smoking. We view the strung out, sunken-eyed, over-worked employee with a cigarette in one hand and coffee in the other as one of those “unhealthy coffee drinkers.” Looks more like a Meth addict if you ask me.
So here’s the bottom line... all recent, credible findings suggest, COFFEE drinking offers no serious detrimental health effects. In fact, if you want to improve your health, its better to focus on other lifestyle factors like, ummmm, weight loss, exercise, increasing fiber, eliminating all recreational drugs, etc ;) - instead of avoiding coffee, which can actually be helpful to your health.
Well, that’s moderate amounts right? Sure, if SIX cups a day is moderate – that’s the established upper tolerable limit – or the equivalent of about 600 mg. Its about 2 Starbucks, Grande black brew or 6 (8oz) cups of “Folgers.”
It doesn’t mean your latest high calorie “coffee concoction” either. The excessive calories will do more harm over time than the minute amount of coffee you MAY be getting somewhere under the whipped cream. And not ALL forms of caffeine, are created equal - Coffee is very complex.
Why the flip-flopping over the years? Well, we’ve just recently been able to isolate the hundreds of compounds in coffee and other potential lifestyle factors that cloud results - like lack of exercise and smoking (two things that are common with heavy coffee drinking).
Although not a miracle food, coffee can protect against Type 2 Diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, liver cancer, and liver cirrhosis. It can help with focus and thinking. New findings regarding cardiovascular benefits are currently being studied – but early findings look good there too!
Now for pregnancy. Caffeine crosses the placenta, to the fetus (unlike Sucralose and Aspartame hgm hgmmm – sorry I couldn’t resist). The fetus is very sensitive to caffeine (because it's teeny tiny) and metabolizes it very, very slowly. The position statement of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists as well as Harvard researchers, recommend less than 200 mg of caffeine a day during pregnancy (8 oz of caffeinated tea and a 12 oz soda have about 50mg, and 8 oz of coffee has about 100 mg).
If you have HTN and are having trouble getting your blood pressure down, try switching to decaf (for some coffee benefits without the caffeine) and see if that makes a difference. But there is no need to simply cut it out unless its posing a problem.
Also, brew/drip vs. french press/boiling is the preferred method of prep because of a compound called cafestol that is filtered out. When left in, it can affect your LDL (bad cholesterol). Espresso falls somewhere in the middle (some cafestol is filtered out, but not all).
Tea offers DIFFERENT benefits than coffee and recent studies have confirmed that tea is still not nearly as beneficial as coffee. This could be because U.S. tea is much weaker than other countries’ tea and coffee, or it could simply be due to a lack of study in this area.
So...
Starbucks anyone?
Also, brew/drip vs. french press/boiling is the preferred method of prep because of a compound called cafestol that is filtered out. When left in, it can affect your LDL (bad cholesterol). Espresso falls somewhere in the middle (some cafestol is filtered out, but not all).
Tea offers DIFFERENT benefits than coffee and recent studies have confirmed that tea is still not nearly as beneficial as coffee. This could be because U.S. tea is much weaker than other countries’ tea and coffee, or it could simply be due to a lack of study in this area.
So...
Starbucks anyone?
Hi Heather. The sugar vs. sweetener research I've found is confusing. Which is better, sugar or sweetener? Thanks.
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