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Drinking 3-4 Cups of Coffee Is “More Likely to Benefit Health Than to Harm It”

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131–140 of 159 posts

Re: Drinking 3-4 Cups of Coffee Is “More Likely to Benefit Health Than to Harm It”

#131

Drinking decaf ~one week a month is a good way to reset your tolerance

This doesn't make sense. Caffeine has a half time of 4 hrs (3-7 according to this source [1] but lets assume 4 for the sake of argument). So if you consume a cup, in 4 hours, you got 50% of caffeine remaining. If you then drink another cup, you go from 0,5 to 1,5 and after 4 more hours you are on 0,75 which is 75% of your first dose. We're then 8 hours in the day. 12 hours into the day you're on 0,375 and at that point you're winding down.

If you'd drink one week a month decaf (assuming you can enjoy the taste. I dislike it) you get caffeine withdrawal the first day, and the other days you don't. But as soon as you start consuming coffee again, you also get withdrawal symptoms because the half time is ~4 hours.

The way I deal with it which is the correct way is limit coffee intake to 2-3 cups a day in the morning/afternoon. None in the evening because it will cause sleep deprivation.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine

Re: Drinking 3-4 Cups of Coffee Is “More Likely to Benefit Health Than to Harm It”

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyway I think it's impossible to talk about caffeine consumption without also considering sugar consumption because they really do go hand in hand. Not for everyone - there are people who drink coffee black with no sugar (especially espresso drinkers).

Yep. I only drink black coffee, no sugar, and I don't eat sweets, cookies, or anything. In fact, I mostly don't consume anything but coffee from I wake up until dinner time, 6-7 PM.

So you're repeatedly having coffee on an empty stomach? That can't be good for you.

Re: Drinking 3-4 Cups of Coffee Is “More Likely to Benefit Health Than to Harm It”

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I only drink black coffee, no sugar, and I don't eat sweets, cookies, or anything. In fact, I mostly don't consume anything but coffee from I wake up until dinner time, 6-7 PM.

So you're repeatedly having coffee on an empty stomach? That can't be good for you.

Haven't noticed any of the supposed side-effects doing so could cause. For a while, not eating for hours was also supposedly bad for you. Then fasting started to show benefits. It turns out traditional dietary advice might not be worth jack shit.

https://www.coffeeandhealth.org/topic-overview/coffee-and-di...

One study found a slight increase in acid reflux when drank on an empty stomach, a problem I don't have, other than that there does not seem to be any associations with gastritis, ulcers, or dyspepsia.

Re: Drinking 3-4 Cups of Coffee Is “More Likely to Benefit Health Than to Harm It”

#134
post #106

In about 100 years, people will realize that this kind of research doesn't actually work. Here's the problem: the human body is an immensely complex system, with millions of factors influencing its status and well-being. Untangling these factors correctly and producing an accurate and sophisticated statistical theory of the body would require a comparably large number of parameters - on the order of millions or more.…

I've never understood this phenomena myself. Those who do this kind of research on a daily basis must have been rather smart to get their job. Surely, they must be intelligent enough to realize that what they do does not really add up to much?

Publish or perish.

Re: Drinking 3-4 Cups of Coffee Is “More Likely to Benefit Health Than to Harm It”

#135
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The assumptions I'm making are that most people drink water and non water, and the non water they drink is not going to be more than 3 to 4 drinks (cups/bottles) per day, and that people drinking coffee are already filling their quota of non water drinks by drinking coffee so they don't drink sugary drinks.

The assumption is still that most people drink water during the day in addition to the coffee, and I'd think that is actually not the case. My experience is water is just an occasional drink during the day, not a primary drink.

That may be true, but wouldn't that not affect my argument?

Re: Drinking 3-4 Cups of Coffee Is “More Likely to Benefit Health Than to Harm It”

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CYP1A2 gene affects how quickly you metabolize caffeine. Stopping at 3pm may not be enough.

I’ll check my CYP1A2 SNPs on 23andme in the AM and report back.

Why would that be informative? It doesn’t tell you your protein expression levels nor effective enzymatic activity.

Re: Drinking 3-4 Cups of Coffee Is “More Likely to Benefit Health Than to Harm It”

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you have any sources on that? I casually looked into that claim in the past and read that coffee is as strong a diuretic as pure water.

there's.... i believe there is enough anecdotal evidence to state with a reasonable confidence level that coffee makes you poop.

Yeah really no need to study this. There's "anecdotal" and then there's "this happens to 80% of people and we have cute euphemisms for when you excuse yourself" and that to me is as good as the most rigorous of studies. Now uhh, excuse me, back in a sec.

Re: Drinking 3-4 Cups of Coffee Is “More Likely to Benefit Health Than to Harm It”

#138
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're correct. I'm also actually astonished how many people drink sugared/flavoured drinks (including "juice" and "milk") as a substitute for water and never question what effect this might be having on them. I would encourage everyone to stop drinking anything except water for 6 months just to see what happens.

I usually drink just tap water, and what I've noticed is that over time I will get sick and feel really dehydrated. I then buy myself a 1.5 liter mineral water from the store and feel much better. I wonder if the "tap water" that we drink is actually the "natural state of water", or if people aren't used to consuming water with a higher mineral content in nature.

Very interesting. I've felt this as well. Even bottled flat water, doesn't seem to hydrate me as well as a carbonated mineral water (e.g. Perrier or Pellegrino). I wonder if this is placebo or if there is some other meaningful effect happening.

Re: Drinking 3-4 Cups of Coffee Is “More Likely to Benefit Health Than to Harm It”

#139

I'm going to go out on a limb here and state a theory I've been considering for a while that could explain these coffee health benefit results... The liquids I and everyone else consumes can be placed in two classes: pure water and everything else. When I'm not drinking pure water, my drink of choice is usually coffee, of which I drink about 3 cups a day. Now let's think of the alternative non water drinks out there.…

I'm sure those tea studies have been done, any industry would love to show their product is healthy.

Re: Drinking 3-4 Cups of Coffee Is “More Likely to Benefit Health Than to Harm It”

#140
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you determine you are a slow metabolizer of caffeine?

Anecdotal: If you aren't able to fall asleep as easily 6 hours after a cup of coffee vs 10 hours you might be a slow metabolizer. Strangely enough, if you find yourself in this situation of having drank coffee too late in the day nicotine has actually been proven to speed up the metabolization of caffeine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3365914

I can usually drink coffee within an hour or two of bed. I don't normally do that but I can. On the weekends I drink 2 to 3 cups in the early morning around 5AM. Then around 2 pm I usually drink 1 to 2 more cups.

At 70 something my dad watched a TV show on ADD and said to my stepmom, I think I have ADD. He want to the doctor and told him the same. The doctor said, we don't test for ADD, instead we have assessment questions. He asked my dad, first question "How many cups of coffee do you normally drink?" Dad said 15 to 18 a day. Doctor said we are done. You have ADD.

He was on ritalin the rest of his life. I don't agree with having him on ritalin but that was not my choice. He died of old age at 83. Until a year before his death he had been very healthy. NEver got colds, the flu or anything like that. Had a little spring hay fever. That was all.

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