Damn good coffee: How to stop being afraid of caffeine
The debate about the potential harm of coffee does not subside for many years - some equate the benefit of quitting a drink to quitting smoking, others object that there is no less caffeine in tea. How to make instant coffee and decaffeinated coffee? Is it true that espresso on an empty stomach can provoke an ulcer? Should pregnant women completely give up their favorite drink? Caffeine has been studied for almost two hundred years - the first studies were begun at the request of Johann Goethe by his friend - and we tried to answer these and other questions with the help of research data.
Is it true that the stronger the coffee, the more caffeine in it?
Coffee strength is a taste characteristic that does not depend on the caffeine content, so those who decide to give up caffeine can still enjoy a strong espresso. The amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee can be 50-300 mg and depends on the size of the grinding: the smaller the coffee particles, the greater the total area of their contact with water, which means that more components can be extracted from them during cooking. Other factors are the duration of contact with water and the initial caffeine content in beans - arabica contains almost two times less than Robusta. A cup of decaffeinated coffee still contains it - but just a little, about two milligrams.
Decaffeinated coffee, instant and in capsules - not real, right?
Instant coffee is often not considered "real" because of its questionable taste, but in reality it is just a concentrate of coffee solution - and also contains caffeine, unless otherwise indicated on the packaging. Capsules for coffee machines like Nespresso contain regular ground coffee - and can be with or without caffeine. As for decaffeinated coffee, it is also real, and caffeine is extracted from it at the stage of processing green coffee beans.
Do it in two ways. In one embodiment, green unroasted grains are treated with dichloromethane or ethyl acetate, which remove caffeine from them - these solvents are then removed, also with steam. Although these substances may pose a health risk, their final amount in grains is only a few parts per million - so the decaf is completely safe. In another case, green coffee beans first boil all the components in hot water; caffeine is extracted from this "broth" with the help of chemicals or special filters, and then a new batch of grains is placed in it. After that, due to the diffusion effect, the solution “pulls” only caffeine from the grains, and all other substances, including those responsible for taste, remain in them.
Is caffeine just coffee, black tea and cola?
Generally, caffeine is found in fruits, seeds and leaves of about sixty plants and protects them from insects - and we really get it mainly from coffee, tea, soda, cocoa and chocolate. Unfortunately, people do not protect these products from mosquito bites. On average, there is less caffeine in tea than in coffee - 20-80 mg per cup, but not always. For example, a cup of Japanese Gyokuro tea, which has a pale green color, contains about 500 milligrams of caffeine — five times more than a cup of regular black tea, and two and a half times more than a cup of coffee.
Is it true that coffee increases pulse rate and leads to dehydration?
Caffeine affects the central nervous system - and this leads to a number of effects, psychological and physiological, including from the control of muscle contractions and sleep-related processes. Caffeine increases blood pressure for a couple of hours (not by much, by 3-8 mm of mercury) and increases heart rate. Although caffeine is a weak diuretic, it does not contribute to dehydration, despite a common myth.
Low doses of caffeine (20–200 mg per day — that is, up to three cups of coffee) give an improvement in mood, concentration, energy, and sociality, while systematically using too large doses (1,500–2,000 mg per day — that is, somewhere 20 cups) is associated with anxiety, tremor, sleep disorders and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
Can caffeine cause gastritis or cancer?
It is believed that coffee, especially on an empty stomach, can harm the stomach. Studies show that coffee stimulates the secretion of gastrin, an enzyme that increases the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. However, this effect is associated with other components of coffee, and not with caffeine - in its pure form, it does not cause such a reaction. Anyway, at the moment there is no evidence that small changes in the production of gastric juice can be a risk factor for peptic ulcer. Discomfort after drinking coffee should not be a cause for concern.
Last year, the International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded that coffee does not contribute to the development of malignant tumors. Moreover, it turned out that drinking coffee is associated with a reduced risk of liver cancer. Of course, we should not forget that cancer is a multifactorial disease and its development can be affected by various aspects of diet, lifestyle and genetic predisposition.
Is coffee still a drug?
Regular consumption of even small doses of caffeine - about 100 mg per day - causes physical dependence, but it doesn’t compare with the effects of alcohol and other drugs. A sharp reduction in caffeine in the diet can lead to short-term "breaking" - it manifests itself in changes in mood, headache, muscle pain, insomnia, high blood pressure. Fortunately, this syndrome is short-lived: the symptoms appear most acutely after a couple of days after abstaining from caffeine and disappear completely within a week.
As for addiction to caffeine, that is, the gradual disappearance of its effects, the opinions of scientists differ. It seems that caffeine susceptibility is different for different people. One manages to get used to it quickly - so there are people among us who calmly fall asleep after a cup of coffee without experiencing any of its effects. In others, addiction does not develop; at the moment there are no definitive conclusions about what factors it is connected.
Can pregnant women drink coffee?
According to the latest assessment of the European Food Safety Agency, single doses of caffeine no higher than 200 milligrams - this is one or two cups of coffee - do not represent harm to health, and also do not interact with other substances, such as alcohol or taurine. Daily doses not exceeding 400 mg are also not associated with health risks - although this does not apply to pregnant women for whom a lower dose is recommended, not higher than 200 mg per day.
Can you die drinking too much coffee?
An overdose of caffeine can be fatal - but its amount should be huge - 200 mg per kilogram of body weight, which is about 70 cups of coffee, drunk at the same time. Lower doses - 400-500 mg at a time can lead to poisoning and its effects: confusion, hallucinations, agitation, tachycardia, vomiting. An overdose usually occurs either with the use of caffeine in tablets or capsules, or with the rapid absorption of several drinks containing it in a row - it turns out that drinking coffee during the whole morning can be safer than a three-fold espresso at a time.
Photo: natrot - stock.adobe.com, Natika - stock.adobe.com, devulderj - stock.adobe.com, bestphotostudio - stock.adobe.com
