Coffee Benefits and Side Effects

Let's make it clear: almost everything on this planet - from food and beverage to various natural disasters can harm our health and even worse. But we don't speak about those calamities as often as about coffee effects (almost always negative) on our health. We must admit when those who don’t drink it see a person consuming coffee, they start speaking about the recent researches proving the beverage is bad and kills people. They think it's their civil duty to prevent anyone on the planet and feel proud when someone agrees. But wait a minute: isn’t it annoying? Don't you want in a moment like this tell this person: then what makes us alive and add us more years to live?

But I started this article with the purpose to speak about each side of coffee – bad and good, so let’s leave our righteous anger apart and think a little.

Coffee as any other drink in general has adherents and opponents, benefits and favorable influence. The scientists can argue for a long time and won’t find the right answer, I’m sure. Why did coffee become such a popular topic for arguing when it comes to the health issues? Tea, for example, has addictive qualities and enough caffeine which influences our heath as well. Or let’s speak about the spirits which can be considered even worse – alcohol is much more addictive and harms human’s health much stronger. But start the searches in any web browser and coffee will lead this list.

There are benefits of coffee as well, don’t forget it. There’s no need to invent something fantastic to prove this, let’s just throw a quick glance at history. Coffee has always been something which served as a relaxing remedy: it helped different people relax after work, meditate and simply enjoy this magic aromatic drink at all times. Not without reason the Arabs have thoroughly hidden the secret about the coffee planting and brewing which then made European merchants eager to find this new born treasure.

Yes, some scientific researchers have proven that coffee contains kahweol and cafestol that are able to enlarge the risk of coronary heart disease rising low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels in blood. It’s considered that coffee drinking may lead to iron deficiency anemia in nursing mothers and their babies.

By the way, coffee and pregnancy has always been an issue. There were carried out various investigations which tried to prove that coffee can lead to miscarriage, may have some impact upon baby’s mental or physical health, lead to spontaneous abortions and stillbirths. However it all was proven to be false alarm. Of course, it’s hard for those new mothers who consumed coffee actively before becoming pregnant to give up coffee during pregnancy. There’s nothing to worry about, I assure you. Just don’t drink too much coffee – reduce it to 1-2 cups a day and your baby won’t even notice the difference.

Another frequently asked question is: does coffee stunt your growth? No, it doesn’t. This myth was invented years ago when it was believed that coffee caffeine might lead to osteoporosis and thus lower the bone weight. A simple advice for those very concerned; add some milk to your coffee, and their mixing will even probable coffee side effects. Just don’t give your kids too much coffee: it may affect something different.

Coffee allergy is an evident problem as there always will be people whose organism reacts on some food, drink and anything else. Again, an allergy may be caused by too much coffee and thus large caffeine content in your body, so try to consume a moderate number of cups per day. Too much caffeine may lead to jitters, headache, insomnia, irritability, rash, swelling and difficulty breathing. It may be tannins found in many products, such as red wine, chocolate and coffee. Try to find out whether other food causes same reaction as coffee does.

Chemicals – it is very possible as in order to yield a good crop, some coffee growers use too many pesticides when cultivating coffee. In this case, try organic coffee.

If you prefer latte, mocha, cappuccino, ask yourself if you don’t have an adverse reaction to milk because these drinks are 50% made of milk.

So my advice will always remain one and the same: to be healthy, always keep to the golden mean – a certain number of cups per day (very important!), properly roasted, ground and brewed coffee beans (very important!) of a superior quality. Believe me, everything’s important and if you follow these rules, your health will not be subjected to danger.