Psychological Caffeine Effects To Extra Calories

There is no need to explain why 80% of Americans jump start their day with this most widely used mood-altering drug in the world. Some people are just not functional without their morning cup of coffee. And since getting enough rest has become an illusive dream, who cares about the effects of coffee on your health as long as it keeps you awake? Surprising as it may sound, the bad reputation of coffee has outlived itself. As a matter of fact, coffee might be one of the healthiest drinks out there.

Coffee Takes!
Caffeine, the active ingredient in coffee, has numerous physiological and psychological effects stimulating the brain and nervous system. It is a well known fact that consumption of coffee contributes to the increased alertness and faster reaction time. In addition, drinking coffee with milk in the first part of the day helps to remember gained knowledge. Milk is an excellent source of calcium, and drinking it with or without coffee will counteract this potential nutrient loss.

If improved brain activity is not enough justification for you to enjoy the most delectable drink there is, coffee was found to be beneficial for type 2 diabetes. Intake of caffeine may increase production of digestive juices, relax the walls of the blood vessels and the airways in the lungs, while increasing the force of muscular contractions and increasing the heart rate.

Black coffee is a natural diet drink that may spark your metabolism in a calorie-free way. Caffeine increases heart rate and metabolism so you burn more calories at rest. As for exercise enthusiasts, caffeine has shown to enhance performance and is the most extensively researched ergogenic aid. Not only it diminishes the feeling of fatigue and perceived exertion, caffeine spares muscle glycogen promoting greater use of body fat as energy while bodies are in motion. Besides, muscles of ‘caffeinated bodies’ can work longer before they will exhaustion.

For that matter, coffee has been used for years by endurance athletes to aid in metabolizing fatty acids. Caffeine preferentially increases the body’s use of stored fat for energy, sparing both liver and muscle glycogen, a form of temporary stored sugar in the body. As a nervous-system stimulant, caffeine provides a mental boost that helps athletes through vigorous training sessions.

Of course, what goes up must come down. When caffeine wears off, fatigue sets in with a vengeance diminishing returns on brain activity and other performance. Some so-called “caffeine addicts” report experiencing terrible headaches as an aftereffect of being in an ‘emergency-alert state’.

Coffee Danger!
Here comes the Coffee Danger – its diet properties end as soon as you add something else to it. From milk and sugar, to syrups and cocoa, your cup of java may become a real weight-loss disaster in a matter of seconds. Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino Blended Crème with Whip sounds awesome, but how do 740 calories and 28 grams of fat? And forget about all the health benefits your cup of Java is famous for.

If you are a healthy individual and drink coffee in moderation, at worst, it is a harmless beverage. At best, enjoy you favorite cup of Latte as a healthy boost for the day!

Remember there are better alternatives to coffee if you are in need of a morning boost. Check out our Caffeine Facts to learn more about caffeine and how it could be harmful to your health.

Coffee has been well known to give a person a jumpstart in the morning with its jolt of caffeine; however, it also appears to protect against prostate cancer in men.

Health benefits associated with coffee are well known, but this finding is a particularly robust one; and coffee is an easy health habit to incorporate into your life if you like the taste. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health studied coffee intake and prostate cancer risk using data from the Health Professionals’ Follow-Up Study, which followed nearly 50,000 men from 1986 to 2006, 4,975 of whom developed prostate cancer during these years. The researchers found that men who drank the most coffee (six or more cups per day) had a 20% lower risk for prostate cancer overall, and a 60% lower risk for advanced prostate cancer compared with men who drank no coffee. The results were similar for regular and decaffeinated coffee. The findings were presented at the 2009 annual conference of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Health Brew

Since the decaf brews brought the same benefits, researchers conclude that the results have nothing to do with caffeine. Lead study author Kathryn Wilson, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, said that’s not surprising because coffee has plenty of other helpful, hardworking compounds as well. “Coffee affects insulin and glucose metabolism, and it also seems to have an effect on sex hormone levels,” she said (noting, however, that this second point has been mostly studied in women). Those are two plausible protective mechanisms, according to Dr. Wilson, since both insulin and sex hormones play roles in prostate cancer development and progression. However, more research is needed to obtain precise information.

Meanwhile, this is good news for coffee lovers and even those who just like it. Dr. Wilson said there’s no need to drink lots and lots of coffee. “Although the effect of coffee drinking was strongest among men who drank six or more cups a day, men who drank only one to three cups daily also derived a benefit.” A cup in the study was defined as eight ounces.

Add this to the evidence that coffee may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and liver cancer, and it looks like even the fanciest coffee shops are offering a bargain with their $2 cups of joe!

Reprinted with the permission of:
Bottom Line Publications/Daily Health News
Boardroom Inc.
281 Tresser Blvd., 8th Floor
Stamford, CT 06901
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Most wouldn’t think that caffeine would affect others differently, but studies have been done and it is proving that it actually does. Now it is your turn to see why caffeine might not work for you, but works for those surrounding you without any problem.

See why men are more affected by caffeine then women.

Men can get away with spending less at the coffee bar than women it seems, thanks to new research from the University of Barcelona in Spain that found that caffeinated coffee delivers a harder kick to men than women, providing more alertness in lesser doses.

PERK YOURSELF UP

In the study, 688 healthy university students (238 male and 450 female, mean age 22) drank either a cup of espresso containing 100 mg of caffeine or a cup of decaf espresso with just 5 mg. The study was double-blind, meaning that they did not know whether their espresso was caffeinated or not. Students were asked to self-rate their alertness levels before and at 10, 20 and 30 minutes later. To account for differences in alertness in morning and afternoon, researchers varied testing sessions between 11 am and 1 pm and 4 pm and 6 pm.

Researchers found that…

• Regardless of gender, the caffeinated coffee (100 mg caffeine) had an almost instant impact on participants’ perceived levels of alertness. Apparent at 10 minutes, the effects increased at the 20- and 30-minute intervals, and were stronger in men than women.
• Ten minutes after drinking decaf (5 mg caffeine) coffee, both women and men reported the increases in alertness — though interestingly, in this case, women reported a stronger impact than men. The effect was not sustained in either men or women at the 20- and 30-minute intervals.

Results of the study were published in the October 1, 2008, issue of the journal Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry.

WHY THE DIFFERENCE?

Curious about these differences, I asked Daily Health News contributing editor Andrew L. Rubman, ND, about the study. In his opinion, there are likely numerous factors at play, all of which warrant further examination before conclusions can be drawn. For example, he noted that gender differences may be related to levels of enzymes, which vary among men and women, and also that decaffeinated coffee has a variety of compounds that may affect women in a different way than men.

I don’t particularly care for coffee, personally, but it’s clear that study after study is demonstrating health benefits to moderate coffee consumption. Up to a few cups a day of black coffee, depending on your metabolism, may offer protection against liver disease, type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s and other ailments. As with haircuts, men are lucky enough to be able to get away with spending less to achieve the same benefit.

Source(s):

Andrew L. Rubman, ND, director, Southbury Clinic for Traditional Medicines, Southbury, Connecticut. www.naturopath.org.

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Reprinted with the permission of:
Bottom Line Publications/Daily Health News
Boardroom Inc.
281 Tresser Blvd., 8th Floor
Stamford, CT 06901
www.BottomLineSecrets.com