By LESLIE GARCIAThe Dallas Morning News
Mmmm. Can’t get enough of that caffeine! We like our caffeine, specifically in coffee, so much surely it’s gotta be bad for us.
Well, yes and no. Here are some of coffee’s contradictions.
1 The diuretic dilemma. Does coffee make you tinkle more? Not necessarily. Studies reviewed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest found that people who consumed beverages with 550 caffeine grams or less produced no more urine than when they drank the same amount of noncaffeinated beverages.
2 The heart-disease head-scratcher. Is caffeine’s stimulant effect a danger for heart patients, especially those who also have high blood pressure?
A couple of studies show otherwise, including the Iowa Women’s Healthy Study. Among 27,000 women followed for 15 years, those who drank one to three cups of coffee daily reduced their risk of heart disease by 24 percent.
3 The cancer conundrum. An international review of 66 studies last year showed coffee had little if any effect on developing kidney or pancreatic cancer. Plus a study of 59,000 women in Sweden found no connection between caffeine consumption and breast cancer.
4 The high blood pressure brouhaha. Yes, caffeine produces a slight temporary rise in blood pressure. But when 155,000 nurses were studied, those who didn’t drink coffee were no more likely than those who did to develop hypertension.
5 The weight-loss letdown. The good news: Caffeine speeds up metabolism; 100 milligrams help burn an extra 75 to 100 calories a day. The bad? In a 12-year study of 58,000 health-care professionals, those who increased caffeine consumption, alas, gained weight.
Source: The New York Times
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