Coffee and Health

I get two questions about coffee on a consistent basis 1) will caffeine improve or hurt athletic performance 2) Is coffee safe from a health perspective 1) When most people talk about coffee for athletic improvements generally they are asking about caffeine and its affects on performance. So let us focus on caffeine first. Contrary to popular belief caffeine does not cause dehydration. Katherine Zeratsky, a Mayo Clinic Nutritionist, offers a detailed explanation on the Mayo Clinic website http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeinated-drinks/AN01661. There have also been studies published by University of Connecticut scientists in both 2002 and 2005 that found that there was no change in electrolyte or urine volume after taking a caffeine pill or placebo (these studies can be found The International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism). Abusing caffeine, which World Anti-Doping Agency defines as 12mg per liter of urine, would take 6-8 cups of strong espresso prior to a workout. At this time there is limited evidence to suggest that a cup or two of coffee will impact your athletic performance. Does coffee improve athletic performance? For super endurance athletes that carbo-load (defined in this blog by events lasting 4-12 hours) coffee can act as aid in glycogen storage during carbo-loading for endurance athletes. There is evidence that in certain cases caffeine can aid in performance but not enough to pick up the habit if you do not drink already. Each person can have different sensitivity to caffeine including gastrointestinal and cardiac issues. It is best not to try caffeine the day of an important race nor it is a great idea to stop the day of a big race. Give your body time to adjust in either direction. 2) Is coffee safe? Moving away from the caffeine portion of coffee let us investigate the health effects. The most common question around coffee is the effects of mycotoxin. Mycotoxin is a fungus that attaches to coffee beans and that are not killed during the roasting process. Some of the effects of mycotoxin can be the 'sick' feeling you get from a cup of coffee. If you add milk to your coffee his can also be confused with lactose issue. If you do not have milk issues you may notice that certain brands make you feel better or worse. That is due to the fact not all coffee beans have the same levels of mycotoxin. There are many differing opinions about mycotoxin per brand but there a few knownns: Mycotoxins often form during the drying process so beans made from the wetting process are less likely to contain higher levels of mycotoxin them than dry processed beans. Caffeine has been found to protects coffee beans from the growth of mold and can prevent large amounts of mycotoxins from growing meaning your cup of decaf could cause more issues than a cup of caffeinated. What to do: If you are a coffee drinker and you feel fine after your cup of coffee continue. 1-2 cups of coffee in your regular diet is not a major issue. If you drink coffee for the benefits of caffeine but your cup of joe leaves your stomach feeling upset or sluggish investigate maybe a change in beans is in order. Higher elevation, single origin beans are less likely to have higher levels of mycotoxin. I have recently purchased 'upgraded coffee' in k-cups(not to be confused with bulletproof coffee) and my results have been much better on my stomach than Pike's Place from Starbucks. Please share your questions or experiences. rich