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

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

#81

Post by inDigiNeous »

QML wrote: post #41
muzani wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counter theory: Higher coffee consumption might actually increase the craving for some sugary treat like donuts and banana bread, the classic companions to coffee.

I thought coffee’s actually an appetite suppressant than stimulant.

There's been studies to this, for example [1]

"Dando's previous research had already found that when you chemically block people's ability to taste sweet flavors, it makes them crave more sugar and seek out higher-calorie treats. Based on his collective research, we now know that drinking a caffeinated cup of coffee, which has the same blocking effect, makes people want cookies or cake more than they otherwise would."

Caffeine seems to blocks the adenosine receptors, which makes us feel less sleepy, but these same receptors also play a part in helping us taste sweet flavors. While doing this, it pushes us to find more sweet, sugary tastes. This might be a part of why when drinking coffee especially, which is also pungent and bitter in taste, opposed to sweet, might drive us toward these sugary treats.

Also I feel coffee depletes our energy levels very fast, making us feel more tired when the effect comes down, making hte body want to replenish those energies quickly, and high in sugar ingredients do that fast, with a price though.

It's interesting why tea and mate for example don't have this effect so clearly, maybe it has to do with the bitternes of coffee and the way it is roasted, not sure.

1: http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/ct-coffee-an...

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

#82

Post by inDigiNeous »

polskibus wrote: post #77

Consider supplementing drinking coffee with taking l-theanine. You can read more about the benefits at https://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/wiki/beginners/ Magnesium replenishment also helps, esp. with >2 cups of coffee / day.

L-Theanine is great when combining with coffee, but at least for me when I've experiment with this combination, if doing it routinely, it really can start to deplete maybe the serotonin levels or something in my brain, because I start to feel more dull in a way, it's hard to describe, it's kinda like this slight fuzziness.

Just for more info, I've been experimenting with 200 mg of L-theanine combined with one cup of coffee. Not something I would take in long periods, but definitely useful for those stints where you just have to get something done and need the stimulants.

L-theanine is good also for relaxation alone, and calming the nerves down, I sometimes take it by itself if I feel too anxious also.

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

#84

Post by swah »

emmelaich wrote: post #75
muzani wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its effects vary. My programming productivity drops when I'm on caffeine because I get anxious. It makes me procrastinate a lot more because I get intimidated by the work I need to do.

Yes, coffee increases anxiety. I only learnt that recently. I'm cutting down on it!

Thirded. One of the ways I thought/tried I could stop caffeine is by drinking only on the weekends, when there is no work pressure...

But then you sleep 5 hours on sunday, and monday we are happy again on the coffee train.

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

#85

Post by sigotirandolas »

emmelaich wrote: post #75
muzani wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its effects vary. My programming productivity drops when I'm on caffeine because I get anxious. It makes me procrastinate a lot more because I get intimidated by the work I need to do.

Yes, coffee increases anxiety. I only learnt that recently. I'm cutting down on it!

I find that green tea is often more useful than coffee if you just want a mild push, since it’s basically low dose caffeine. It also has L-theanine which is a mild anxiolitic and can counter caffeine’s anxiogenic effect. Some also find that taking an L-theanine supplement (OTC) along with coffee can also counter most of caffeine’s anxiogenic effect while keeping the wakefulness and focus.

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

#86

Post by Chickenosaurus »

Nydhal wrote: post #70
d_burfoot wrote: post #52

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.…

In some sense traditional medicine or traditional\religious healthy habits (I'm thinking something like kashrut) has way larger sample since it's been practiced for millenia and its populations still survived enough to transmit them to offspring. If grandma made it long enough to teach the grand kids some old traditions there's probably some merit to some of them.

The only thing that can be deduced from this observation is that these traditions are not deadly in the short term. After all, smoking is a tradition in some cultures, even though we are sufficiently certain smoking is harmful.

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

#87

Post by bschwindHN »

We seem way too focused on whether coffee is good or bad for our health.

All I know is it tastes fucking delicious, it makes me feel good, and we've been drinking it for generations. If I die earlier because of it, then so be it. At least I'll have had an enjoyable coffee-drinking life.

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

#88

Post by jooke »

bschwindHN wrote: post #87

We seem way too focused on whether coffee is good or bad for our health. All I know is it tastes fucking delicious, it makes me feel good, and we've been drinking it for generations. If I die earlier because of it, then so be it. At least I'll have had an enjoyable coffee-drinking life.

At one point a similar sentiment could have been expressed about smoking

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

#89

Post by DanBC »

bschwindHN wrote: post #87

We seem way too focused on whether coffee is good or bad for our health. All I know is it tastes fucking delicious, it makes me feel good, and we've been drinking it for generations. If I die earlier because of it, then so be it. At least I'll have had an enjoyable coffee-drinking life.

> If I die earlier because of it, then so be it. At least I'll have had an enjoyable coffee-drinking life.

On the other hand if coffee drinking causes strokes you could live for years with severe impairment.

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

#90

Post by ryanmerket »

e9 wrote: post #68

We all have gene in our liver for making enzyme that breaks down caffeine. Due to small genetic differences, some of us have enzyme that breaks down caffeine quickly and others that breaks it down slowly. If you win genetic lottery and produce enzyme that breaks down caffeine fast then you flush out caffeine and end up reaping benefits of antioxidants found in coffee beans. If you have enzyme that breaks down caffein…

This. I’m a slow caffeine metabolizer and had to give up caffeine.
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