Many people around the world enjoy their steaming hot cup of coffee at least a few times daily, but are their health risks, or benefits from drinking coffee? Just like anything else, eating or drinking to much of something could have health risks and drinking coffee in excess is no exception! Don’t take this only in a bad way, as coffee actually has many good health benefits as well.
The main culprit that give the potential health risks to coffee drinkers is the amount of caffeine ingested. Some people can tolerate huge amounts of caffeine with no problems at all, then there are those who consume as little as one cup of coffee and up goes their blood pressure, there sleep pattern changes, increased anxiety, or they just fell sick. We are all different in the way our bodies handle caffeine, so you must get to know your limits. Since most of the health risks are associated with caffeine, lets look at the caffeine content of coffee.
Coffee Product Caffeine range (mg) Coffee – based on 8 oz cup unless stated different:
Brewed Coffee 65-120
Instant Coffee 60-85
Decaff, brewed coffee 2-4
Decaff, instant coffee 1-4
Espresso, 1 oz cup 30-50
Capuccino, Latte, 1oz shot 30-50
Moccachino, 1 oz shot 35-55
You should learn your limits and really never drink more than 5 cups of coffee daily, you would be risking vitamin/mineral depletion as potassium, calcium, magnesium, creating an imbalance. The risk result of a calcium/magnesium imbalance is calcium deposits may form on the heart muscle. If this starts happens, the heart simply cannot contract properly. Magnesium is important for breaking down fats you eat into fatty acids which are useful in building body parts as nerve sheaths and cellular membranes. When the fats are not broken down properly, they will start to collect in deposits, which can lodge on damaged arterial points, which you certainly do not want. Drinking coffee can flood nutrients out of your body via your urine. This includes Vitamins A, D, E, K and the minerals potassium, magnesium, calcium, plus your essential fatty acids.
A simple way to protect your self if your coffee consumption is very high, just take extra vitamins and minerals as a supplement daily. Coffee does give you some good health benefits as well, such as coffee contains the anticancer compound methylpyridinium which is not present in significant amounts in any other food materials. Methylpyridinium is not present in the raw coffee beans, it is formed during the coffee beans roasting process from trigonelline, which is very common in raw coffee beans. It is present in both caffeinated coffee and decaffeinated coffee, including instant coffee.
There are other benefits to drinking your daily coffee or java as well, but the most important thing to remember is, just drink your coffee in moderation and take extra vitamins and minerals if consumption is on the high side to safe guard yourself.
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