Dangers and alternatives to coffee drinking habit

Dangers and alternatives to coffee drinking habit

By Jane Clarke

LONDON: Coffee, like tea, is a fine drink, but your body can
suffer in numerous ways from caffeine toxicity, if you over-
consume - that is, drink more than two to three cups a day.
Caffeine, an alkaloid, is found naturally in coffee and tea, but
is also added to fizzy drinks, such as cola, some
sports/energizing drinks and supplements.

The concentration is highest in coffee, but tea and colas
contribution falls only slightly behind. It is impossible to say
how much caffeine is present in specific cups of coffee or tea,
because it depends on the type used and method of brewing.

A cup of espresso may contain as much as 300 mg of caffeine,
while a cup of instant contains only 75 mg. Strangely, filter
coffee can contain more caffeine than espresso, because the water
remains in contact with the beans for longer. The caffeine
content of tea depends principally on the length of time for
which it has been brewed, but is likely to be a little less than
that of a cup of instant coffee - say 40-50 mg.

However, the average Briton drinks twice as much tea. When it
comes to cola drinks, they contain roughly half as much caffeine
for the same volume of tea, and a third of instant coffee.
Unfortunately, the majority of consumers are children, which
means that, because of their size, children receive a similar
dose of caffeine from the same quantity of cola as an adult will
from coffee. They can be adversely affected by consuming large
amounts of caffeine, and while it is not a cause of
hyperactivity, children can become restless, irritable and
nervous when they consume more than six cans per day, according
to psychiatrists from the U.S. National Institute of Mental
Health. Numerous children become unsettled by just a couple of
cola hits.

Caffeine also inhibits the absorption of both calcium and
iron, two essential growth nutrients for children. Likewise,
adults who swallow nutritional supplements with their morning
coffee or tea are wasting their time: the caffeine can bind the
nutrients in the gut and stop absorption. People who have an
increased risk of osteoporosis - such as menopausal women or
those on steroids on a long-term basis - should make sure their
caffeine intake is well within the recommended level, as their
bones need all the help they can get to maintain strength.
Equally, people who suffer from iron- deficiency anemia should
keep caffeine intake down and shouldn't accompany iron-rich meals
with caffeine - leave at least two hours or so between eating and
having a cup of tea or coffee.

One of the reasons people over-consume caffeine is because of
the stimulating effect it has on the brain. This alkaloid goes
for brain receptors designed for adenosine, a natural sedative
that tells the body to slow down. By overriding and blocking this
normal hormonal reaction, caffeine fools the body into staying in
top gear. This is fine on the odd occasion, but on a long-term
basis relying on caffeine to keep you going undermines the body's
natural ability to feel energetic - and to sleep when it needs
to. We are mammals that need to sleep and slow down at times; if
we're disrupting our resting routines, the body will suffer. To
avoid disrupted sleep, don't drink caffeine past mid-afternoon if
you can help it. There is, after all, plenty of research - both
anecdotal and scientific - to suggest that people who consume
caffeine regularly experience lowered mood states, headaches and
drowsiness when they stop, which would indicate that caffeine is
capable of completely undermining your body's natural state of
wellbeing.

The Institute of Food Research has also found that a
relationship exists between caffeine-withdrawal symptoms and
drink preference. In other words, it's addictive. If you are
reducing your caffeine intake, I suggest you do it gradually to
avoid the worst withdrawal effects. But once you've got through
the initial headaches, low energy and other cold-turkey symptoms,
you will feel much more energetic.

Excess caffeine can speed up your heart rate - we all know
that fluttering, racing-heart feeling after one espresso too
many, or the state of anxiety you sometimes get when you have
overdone the tea breaks. For this reason, many cardiologists
recommend that people with heart complaints should cut caffeine
out altogether.

Excess caffeine can also aggravate premenstrual tension and
menopausal symptoms, such as flushes, breast tenderness and fluid
retention. And it affects the gut in many ways - some good as
well as bad. On the negative side, caffeine can irritate the
stomach and esophagus linings, which can in turn aggravate
indigestion, hiatus hernias, inflamed ulcers, reflux and other
digestive complaints. Further down, caffeine can stimulate the
colon and rectum to increase their peristalsis (wave-like
movements), which means that if you have a tendency towards
diarrhea and malabsorption it can cause you to lose more
nutrients.

On the other hand, caffeine may also get a sluggish,
constipated bowel going - which is why some people find a coffee
hit in the morning helpful.

Of course, drinking decaffeinated coffee or tea is always an
option. You should be aware, though, that in many cases the
process of decaffeination affects the taste adversely and, more
worryingly, involves the use of solvents, such as methylene
chloride. Although the beans are subsequently steamed, the
process does still leave some residues. Unless the packaging
actively states that the contents have only been exposed to water
method (not just 'steamed' - it's a misleading term), assume that
solvents have been used.

-- Observer News Service