In the USA, ~62% of adults consume coffee every day, drinking nearly 400M cups daily. But not all of us can drink coffee without negative side effects. Either, as a function of age where we can no longer physically tolerate the drink or caffeine, or some of us have never been able to drink the brew. Coffee, and caffeine itself, has pros and cons, but if you do drink coffee is there a way to make it healthier or have less impact on our bodies?
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Natural Caffeine Sources
Wikipedia is very clear: Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant of the methylxanthine class. It is the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive drug.
The caffeine content of a single cup can range from ~30–300 mg, with the average cup containing ~90–100 mg. But caffeine is not limited to just coffee beans. Other plants, I believe 60 in total, have been identified as producing caffeine. Here is a small list of some of those plants:
- Coffee Beans
- Cocoa beans
- Kola nuts
- Tea leaves
- Yerba maté
- Guarana berries
- Guayusa
- Yaupon holly, etc.
Coffee History
Equipment
I relied on all the links in this post to gather the history of coffee preparation, especially ThoughtCo.
- 1529: Sweeteners were first added to coffee
- 1822: First espresso machine was made in France.
- 1865: James Mason invented the coffee percolator.
- 1901: Japanese American chemist Satori Kato of Chicago invented instant coffee.
- 1908: The coffee filter + filter paper were patented by German housewife Melitta Bentz.
- 1933: Dr. Ernest Illy invented the first automatic espresso machine.
- 1946: Italian Achilles Gaggie invented the modern-day espresso machine.
- 1960: The first pump driven espresso machine was produced by the Faema company.
Companies
- Late 1400s: Coffee houses originated in Mecca (1)
- 1529: Coffee houses opened in Vienna — which is where sweeteners were first added to coffee
- 1534: Coffee houses opened in Damascus
- 1555: Coffee houses opened in Constantinople
- 1792: The Tontine Coffee House in New York was first coffee shop in USA (2)
- 1908: German Melitta Bentz and her husband Hugo started the Melitta Bentz Company.
- 1926: “Maxwell House Good to the last drop” was trademark registered.
- 1966: Peets Coffee started in Berkeley, CA.
- 1971: Starbucks in Seattle, WA.
Coffee Etiquette
- 1592: Adding cream + sweetener to coffee became fashionable in Europe, along with Cafes themselves.
- 1908: Drip Coffee created by Melitta Bentz (3)
- 1946: Espesso was created in Italy
Coffee Details
Coffee originated from Ethiopia, but is now a worldwide hot or cold beverage. Studies continue to be conducted on its main ingredient, caffeine, and it is not unusual to read articles and studies about its health properties (like antioxidants). And those studies go back-and-forth on if it is a healthy drink.
In terms of its taste, I find espresso and drip coffee is bitter and acidic.
In terms of why we drink it, clearly it is because the caffeine wakes us up and sharpens our bodies actions and brain processes. When I finally became menopausal, this drink (and tea) were the only thing that kept me sharp enough to multi-task and keep up at work. It is a magical brew.
Coffee Plant
CoffeeandHealth writes that coffee grows in around eighty countries in South and Central America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. Arabica coffee accounts for about three-quarters of coffee cultivated worldwide. It is grown throughout Latin America, Central and East Africa, India and, to some extent, Indonesia.
Specifically, they write: Robusta coffee is grown in West and Central Africa, throughout South-East Asia and, to some extent, in Brazil. Brazil is the largest coffee exporting nation, but Vietnam tripled its exports between 1995 and 1999, and became a major producer of Robusta beans. Indonesia is the third-largest exporter and the largest producer of washed Arabica coffee.
California Coffee
With climate change, coffee is undergoing stresses as weather changes and moves.
News360 tells of a recent move to bring coffee plantations to California. In 2017 Dr. Mark Gaskell gave Jay Ruskey, a farmer and agronomist, some coffee plants he’d propagated. Ignoring the cynics who told him growing coffee in California was next to impossible, Ruskey started interplanting the shrubs with avocado trees on his Good Land Organics farm near Goleta.” Coffee and avocado have a lot of the same soil nutrition needs and irrigation requirements, so it made sense to plant them together,” he says. “It’s really one of the first successful companion cropping systems I’ve seen in California.”
He now sells California grown coffee on his website and has 70+ other farms growing coffee as well.
Biology Effects + Differences
The process of what caffeine does in the brain is pretty well known. Caffeine is a stimulant and blocks the function of an inhibitory neurotransmitter, a brain hormone known as adenosine. By doing this, caffeine, in effect, charges up our brain activity, which in turn sponsors the release of other neurotransmitters (e.g., norepinephrine and dopamine), that reduces our feelings of tiredness while increases alertness.
At the same time, as each of our biology is slightly different, none of us react to caffeine in exactly the same way (4). Our tolerances can differ wildly, so some can drink more than others. Our bodies metabolize caffeine differently enough, that some of us find that even decaffeinated coffee gives us the jitters, others not so much.
Because of our biological, genetic, gender, medical variations, read the following health comments with caution. Remember, I am not a recognized expert in medical, nutritional, or biological effects of caffeine.
Biological Positives
While editing this post, I read a new research paper that came out October 2021, concluding: high levels of coffee and caffeine consumption were significantly associated with a reduced dementia risk in a dose-dependent manner, especially in men. Moreover, coffee consumption of ≥3 cups/day was associated with a 50% reduction in dementia risk.
Like I have said, the studies go back in forth in the evaluation of coffee/caffeine impact on human health. When reading them there are a lot of “may improve” or “may prevent” so clearly there needs to continue to be research. Here are some other studies:
- Some studies have shown that benefits from coffee include: a short-term boost in brain function, improved moods, quicker physical and mental reaction times, increased vigilance, and improved general cognitive brain function.
- Several other studies have shown that for some people, coffee drinking is associated with a 65% decrease in developing Alzheimers (5) and a 32%-60% decrease in developing Parkinson’s Disease (6).
- Other studies have focused on Type 2 Diabetes and found a 23%-67% reduction in development of this disease among coffee drinkers (7).
- Drinking coffee may reduce development of liver cirrhosis by 84% (8) and reduced chances of getting liver cancer by 40% (9).
- Women coffee drinkers had lower depression rates by 20% (10) and adult suicides dropped by 53% (11).
- The ClevlandClinic (May 2021) notes coffee may prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
- In support, the Nutrients Journal hypothesized coffee reduces risk of molecular-level liver scarring. Such scarring, according to EatThisNotThan, may lead to fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, or even eventual death.
Coffee + Pesticides
I have seen on-line videos and blogs where people speak about how coffee plants are being pumped full of pesticides and thus we should only be consuming organic coffee.
While I do prefer organic foods, lets be truthful here, ALL COFFEE CONTAINS A PESTICIDE called 1,3,7-Trimethylxanthine. This addictive neurotoxin is known to kill insects and at certain high levels can kill us. But, the pesticide is also the reason consume coffee as 1,3,7-Trimethylxanthine Is caffeine.
Caffeine Toxicity
Today we have plenty of drinks that are readily available and naturally contain caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate, etc), but also people can buy caffeine tablets and pills, or purchase artificial drinks that contain extremely high levels of added caffeine. There are now studies, and major concerns about caffeine toxicity.
- Many energy drinks may contain ~300mg of caffeine, the amount in two cups of brewed coffee.
- CaffeineInformer has a database of drinks and their caffeine levels.
- They also have a calculator for figuring out the safe amount of caffeine you can consume.
Harvard writes: Caffeine toxicity has been observed with intakes of 1.2 grams or more in one dose. Consuming 10-14 grams at one time is believed to be fatal. Caffeine intake up to 10 grams has caused convulsions and vomiting, but recovery is possible in about 6 hours. Side effects at lower doses of 1 gram include restlessness, irritability, nervousness, vomiting, rapid heart rate, and tremors.
MedicalNewsToday reports that In a 2018 review of scientific journal articles, researchers identified 92 reported deaths from caffeine overdose. This review included all journals since online databases began. The researchers believe that around one-third of these deaths are likely to be suicide.
Recommendations for caffeine intake are up to 400mg a day and no more than 200mg in a single dose. However, for teens and children, daily caffeine intake should be no more than 3mg per kg of body weight.
Coffee can be a Healthy Drink
Healthline reports that even just 1C of coffee contains a number of important nutrients and a boatload of antioxidants that make some consider it a healthy drink.
- Vitamin B2 (riboflavin): 11% of the DV
- Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid): 6% of the DV
- Vitamin B1 (thiamine): 2% of the DV
- Vitamin B3 (niacin): 2% of the DV
- Folate: 1% of the DV
- Manganese: 3% of the DV
- Potassium: 3% of the DV
- Magnesium: 2% of the DV
- Phosphorus: 1% of the DV
It also contains a large amount of antioxidants (12). HealthLine goes on to write: In fact, the typical Western diet provides more antioxidants from coffee than from fruits and vegetables combined.
Make Coffee Consumption Healthier
Caffeine has Limits
I received my monthly wellness email from Kaiser in June and they referenced an article written on coffee. Part of that article reminded readers that: The maximum recommended amount of caffeine per day is 400 milligrams, which is about 4 cups of brewed coffee. Remember a cup is 8 ounces, so this means they consider 32 ounces as the maxed amount of BREWED coffee, not espresso.
Choose Organic Beans
The quality of coffee you buy, either as beans, ground beans, or liquid, varies greatly depending on growing methods, harvesting and processing.
In general, unless organic, coffee beans are sprayed with synthetic pesticides, and other chemicals, that should not be consumed.
Choose Brewing Style
Healthline reports that brewed coffee contains cafestol (13), a bioactive substance that raises blood cholesterol levels. To reduce these levels, just use a paper filter. Brewing coffee with a paper filter effectively lowers the amounts of cafestol by catching it in the filter (14). At the same time, the filter allows caffeine and beneficial antioxidants to pass through and into your drink. However, it is not clear to me that cafestol is all bad because some recent animal studies suggest it might have some benefits.
Drink it Early
Studies indicate that it is better to have your last caffeine drink up to 7 hours before you sleep. In the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine they write that consuming caffeine 6 hours before bedtime may not keep you awake, but will reduce the quality of sleep. In some cases , mimicking jet lag and wreaking havoc on the body’s internal clock. Another study, in Science Translational Medicine, indicates that drinking even ~60-100mg of caffeine 3 hours before bedtime can reverse your body’s clock back an hour.
My goto health website, HealthLine, recommends drinking your last cup of coffee by 2pm.
Drink Without Sugar
As is often the case, the item itself may not be unhealthy, it is what we add to it that makes the food unhealthy. This is true for the baked potato as well as your cup of coffee. Adding sugar, syrup, whip cream, and so on is what makes a cup nothing more than mouth candy.
Reduce Bitterness
ThoughtCo writes: From a biochemical perspective, adding a small amount of salt to coffee does make it less bitter. I tried this, adding just a pinch of salt (~1/4t) to the grounds while pouring water over the drip coffee grounds.
Sugar or whole milk helps reduce bitterness.
Do not over cook or leave heating too long cause it can add a burnt taste to the bitterness as well.
Add Plant or Animal Milks
If you usually drink coffee black, consider adding milks as a way to up the nutrients in the drink.
If requiring milk, to soften the bitter taste of coffee, consider using full fat cream, no-fat cow’s milk, or unsweetened plant milks. I like Hazelnut Milk or Vanilla Almond Milk as an occasional twist to my drink.
On the flip side, try to avoid powdered, artificial, and non-dairy creamers. This is just a processed batch of chemicals, dried milk products, and preservatives.
Spice it Up
Instead of using the various high-caloric syrups, flavor you favorite pick-me-up with spice. Favorite options are Ceylon cinnamon, nutmeg, or a sprinkle of coco powder. The spices add flavor, aroma, but also a hint of sweetness to the cup of coffee.
The choice here is to sprinkle on top of your coffee (or foam), or add them directly to the grounds as you make the coffee. The bottom line is that what these spices bring to our nutrition are then incorporated into our drink making it more healthy.
Consider Drinking it Cold + Dripped
There are times when I want the caffeine, but not the heat of a hot cup of coffee. So iced coffee with low fat milk is my choice, but also this has its own benefits. If you make your cold brew at a lower temp, say drip coffee rather than espresso, you also can reduce the acidity and bitterness of the drink.
Consider the Caffeine
So first off, do not combine coffee and “energy” drinks in a day. You can overdose on the caffeine. Secondly, remember that even decaffinated coffee still contains some caffeine.
To reduce your caffeine intake, consider mixing decaf and fully caffeinated coffee into your cup.
Be good to your body
Dr. Hashmi explains, There are many benefits to drinking coffee, but you have to be mindful about how you drink it. When it comes to nutrition, I like to think that what you put in your body must have a good ROI (return on investment). If you don’t get anything nutritious out of it, it’s not worth your time.
My Story
Interestingly, especially in Europe in the beginning of Coffee Shops, women were excluded from the shops, which were expected to be the domain of men (1). But now, especially around college towns, it is THE great meeting spot for everyone.
My family has a variety of preferences with coffee.
- My mothers husband loved American percolated coffee, which my Oma loved as well as she got older and could not tolerated Germany’s rich coffee as well as she could in her youth.
- My mother did not drink it much.
- I drank a 16oz latte-type, hot coffee drink (espresso with steamed plant or animal milk), at least once a day ~9am while I was working.
- Now, I may get one per week for those days neither me nor my spouse want to make breakfast, so we order scones and drinks.
- At home I make drip coffee, for when our son visits, has he prefers drip coffee, black with nothing added.
- My spouse prefers iced tea, but occasionally will order a Cappuccino (espresso with hot milk foam).
For me coffee is bitter and not a favorite flavor, although I do not experience any bad reactions. One of my friends however, gets a severe case of the jitters and stomach pain from even drinking decaffeinated coffee. Thus proving the points, that our biologies, preferences, and processing of food differs.
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