Coffee is a beverage that many people can't do without every day, but what exactly are its positive and negative effects on the body? This article starts with coffee's main components, systematically sorting out the effects of substances such as caffeine, tannic acid, fat, and sugar, then separately explains the benefits of drinking coffee in moderation, including refreshing the mind, protecting the skin, sobering up, and preventing gallstones, while also covering problems that may be caused by excessive intake, such as caffeine poisoning, insomnia, and anxiety. The article also specifically lists six groups of people who should not drink much coffee, and gives reminders about drinking on an empty stomach and for people with high blood pressure. If you care about the relationship between coffee and health, this content can serve as a relatively complete reference.

To discuss whether coffee is beneficial or harmful to health, it may be helpful to first understand what components coffee actually contains.

Caffeine: Its bitterness is quite pronounced, and it stimulates the central nervous system, heart, and respiratory system. When consumed in moderation, caffeine can relieve muscle fatigue and promote increased secretion of digestive juices. It also enhances the kidneys' efficiency, produces a diuretic effect, and helps the body excrete excess sodium ions. However, once intake is excessive, it may cause caffeine poisoning.

Coffee

Tannic acid: After boiling, tannic acid decomposes into pyrogallic acid, which is also why coffee tastes worse when it has been brewed for too long.

Fat: The fat in coffee consists mainly of acidic fat and volatile fat.

Acidic fat: Refers to fat containing acid; the strength of the sour taste varies with the coffee variety.

Volatile fat: This is the main source of coffee's aroma and can release about forty aromatic substances.

Protein: It is one of the main sources of calories, but its proportion is not high. Most of the protein in coffee grounds does not dissolve during extraction, so the amount actually consumed by the human body is very limited.

Sugar: Sugar in green coffee beans accounts for about 8%. After roasting, most of the sugar turns into caramel, giving coffee its brown color and, after combining with tannic acid, bringing a sweet taste.

Fiber: The fiber in green beans carbonizes after roasting and then combines with caramel, forming coffee's color.

Minerals: Coffee contains small amounts of lime, iron, phosphorus, sodium carbonate, and so on.

The benefits and drawbacks of drinking coffee: first, the benefits of drinking coffee in moderation

1. Coffee has a certain nutritional value. The niacin in coffee contains vitamin B, and the content is even higher in roasted coffee beans. In addition, it also contains free fatty acids, caffeine, tannic acid, and so on.

2. Coffee is good for the skin. It can speed up metabolism and activate the digestive organs, with a clear effect on relieving constipation. Bathing with coffee grounds is a kind of thermotherapy and helps with weight loss.

3. Coffee can help sober you up. Drinking coffee after alcohol can prompt the acetaldehyde converted from alcohol to oxidize quickly and eventually decompose into water and carbon dioxide to be excreted from the body.

4. Coffee can reduce fatigue. To eliminate fatigue, it is usually necessary to supplement nutrition, ensure rest and sleep, and improve metabolism, and coffee happens to have effects in these areas.

5. Three cups of coffee a day can help prevent gallstones. Caffeinated coffee can promote gallbladder contraction and reduce the cholesterol content in bile that easily forms stones. The latest finding by researchers at Harvard University in the United States is that men who drink two to three cups of coffee a day have a 40% lower probability of developing gallstones than those who do not drink it.

6. Regular coffee drinking can also reduce radiation damage. Radiation damage, especially the radiation produced by various electrical appliances, has become a relatively prominent pollution problem today. Researchers at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in India reached this conclusion through mouse experiments and stated that it can also be extended to humans.

7. Coffee has health-care and medical functions. It can resist oxidation, protect the heart, strengthen the bones and muscles, benefit the waist and knees, stimulate appetite and promote eating, reduce fat and resolve stagnation, free the orifices and remove dampness, invigorate blood and dissolve stasis, calm wind and stop spasms, and so on.

8. Coffee also affects mood. Experiments show that an ordinary person's intake of 300 milligrams of caffeine per day (roughly equivalent to 3 cups of brewed coffee) can have a positive effect on alertness and emotional state.

The benefits and drawbacks of drinking coffee: excessive drinking has many disadvantages

If caffeine is consumed heavily over the long term, it will bring "caffeine poisoning" just like a drug. This kind of poisoning includes addiction and a series of adverse physical and psychological reactions, such as nervousness, irritability, anxiety, tremor, muscle twitching (hyperreflexia), insomnia, and palpitations. Most people take caffeine for its stimulating effect, and many students take caffeine tablets when dealing with exams or working night shifts. Strictly speaking, only continuously increasing the dosage counts as true addiction, and "caffeine dependence" is a more accurate description; but under a widely accepted definition, all chronic and difficult-to-break behaviors can be called addiction, so describing it as caffeine addiction is also reasonable. In addition, caffeine promotes increased gastric acid, and continuous high-dose intake may cause peptic ulcers, erosive esophagitis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. However, both regular coffee and decaffeinated coffee stimulate the gastric mucosa and increase gastric acid secretion, so caffeine may not be the only active component in coffee.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition) identifies four types of mental disorders caused by caffeine, including caffeine intoxication, caffeine-induced anxiety disorder, caffeine-induced sleep disorder, and other caffeine-related disorders.

The benefits and drawbacks of drinking coffee: summarized as follows

1. Coffee contains certain nutritional components. The niacin in coffee contains vitamin B, and the content is higher in roasted coffee beans. It also has free fatty acids, caffeine, tannic acid, and so on.

2. Coffee is beneficial to the skin. Coffee can promote metabolic function and activate the digestive organs, and has a great effect on constipation. Bathing with coffee grounds is a kind of thermotherapy and has a weight-loss effect. Drinking a cup of coffee after a meal also helps digestion.

3. Coffee has the function of sobering up. Drinking coffee after alcohol will cause the acetaldehyde converted from alcohol to oxidize quickly, decompose into water and carbon dioxide, and be excreted from the body.

4. Coffee can eliminate fatigue. To eliminate fatigue, it is necessary to supplement nutrition, rest and sleep, and promote metabolic function, and coffee has these functions.

5. Three cups of coffee a day can prevent gallstones. Caffeinated coffee can stimulate gallbladder contraction and reduce the cholesterol in bile that easily forms gallstones. The latest discovery by researchers at Harvard University in the United States is that men who drink two to three cups of coffee a day have a probability of developing gallstones lower by 40%.

6. Regular coffee drinking can prevent radiation damage. Radiation damage, especially radiation from electrical appliances, has become a relatively prominent kind of pollution today. Researchers at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in India reached this conclusion in mouse experiments and stated that it can be applied to humans.

7. Coffee's health-care and medical functions. Coffee has effects such as resisting oxidation and protecting the heart, strengthening bones and muscles, benefiting the waist and knees, stimulating appetite and promoting eating, reducing fat and resolving stagnation, freeing the orifices and removing dampness, invigorating blood and dissolving stasis, and calming wind and stopping spasms.

8. Coffee's influence on mood. Experiments show that an ordinary person's absorption of 300 milligrams (about 3 cups of brewed coffee) of caffeine per day will bring a good influence on a person's alertness and mood.

The benefits and drawbacks of drinking coffee: the following six types of people experience more drawbacks from drinking coffee

People with diseases such as high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, and arteriosclerosis — long-term or heavy coffee drinking may induce cardiovascular disease.

Older women — coffee reduces calcium and causes osteoporosis. After menopause, women need ten times more calcium every day.

People with stomach disease — excessive coffee drinking can worsen stomach disease.

Pregnant women — drinking excessive coffee can lead to fetal malformation or miscarriage.

People deficient in vitamin B1 — vitamin B1 can maintain the balance and stability of the nervous system, while coffee has a destructive effect on it.

Cancer patients — drinking excessive coffee poses a carcinogenic risk to normal people.

Doctors remind the public never to drink coffee on an empty stomach, because coffee stimulates gastric acid secretion, and people with gastric ulcers in particular should be even more cautious. As a beverage, coffee should be drunk in moderation according to individual circumstances. Overall, in nutrition science, the emphasis is still on a balanced diet and using fewer spicy and stimulating foods.

The benefits and drawbacks of drinking coffee are both numerous; when consumed in moderation, the adverse effects are not great. In addition, it is worth noting that people with high blood pressure should avoid drinking caffeinated beverages when work pressure is high. This is because the caffeine in coffee may cause blood pressure to rise, and if emotional tension is added on top of that, a dangerous multiplier effect will occur.

(Front Street Coffee reminds you: when choosing coffee beans, you can judge freshness based on the roasting date and flavor description. For daily drinking, it is recommended to control the total amount and pay attention to your own tolerance for caffeine.)

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.