Do You Need To Give Up Coffee?

Alexander Bruni
Author: Alexander Bruni Time for reading: ~6 minutes Last Updated: October 13, 2022
Do You Need To Give Up Coffee?

No breakfast of Ludwig van Beethoven was complete without coffee. He prepared an invigorating drink at dawn with great enthusiasm. I counted out exactly 60 grains individually to guarantee the perfect taste, crushed them and boiled them in boiling water. Now you can make coffee by pressing just 1 button. And yet, for many, this drink is not just an easy way to cheer up in the morning, but also

No breakfast of Ludwig van Beethoven was complete without coffee . He prepared an invigorating drink at dawn with great enthusiasm. I counted out exactly 60 grains individually to guarantee the perfect taste, crushed them and boiled them in boiling water.

Now you can make coffee by pressing just 1 button. And yet, for many, this drink is not just an easy way to cheer up in the morning, but also a pleasant ritual. Which, however, is often supplemented by conversations about the harm of caffeine and its side effects on the nervous system.

 

Giving up coffee is often perceived as a necessary step on the way to a healthy lifestyle. But is a cup of coffee for breakfast really dangerous for health?

 

How caffeine works

Another brilliant composer, Johann Strauss, was also a big fan of coffee and claimed that the aroma of this drink was his main source of inspiration. A pot of coffee , silence and a grand piano - it was in such an environment that great music was born. And many great novels too: Marcel Proust, for example, started writing only after a morning portion of coffee with milk. Celeste's assistant brought him a silver coffee pot with strong drink for 2 mugs, a porcelain jug of milk and a croissant to his bedroom. Quite French.

Even Thomas Mann could not do without a morning coffee recharge. Of course, it would be too naive to claim that coffee serves as the main stimulus for creativity. And yet there is a grain of truth in Balzac's words that coffee is the assistant with which creative work ceases to be a pain. The fact is that caffeine really has the ability to sharpen our senses, activate cognitive processes and improve mood.

 

Murray Carpenter in the book "On Caffeine " provides sufficient evidence that low doses of caffeine are accompanied by positive subjective effects. Research participants report feeling more energetic, creative, efficient and confident after a cup of coffee . It is easier for them to work. Science explains this by the ability of caffeine molecules to release dopamine and block adenosine receptors, which signal fatigue to the body.

How safe is it? On the one hand, caffeine is really quite an effective tool for increasing concentration of attention, improving mental functions and activating memory. On the other hand, the cheerfulness it gives is short-lived and illusory. A double espresso is not a substitute for full rest, although it seems that fatigue disappears. And too large doses of caffeine (more than 400 mg per day) will not help to cope with lack of sleep, but will only lead to intoxication.

 

When caffeine is too much

Hand tremors, increased nervousness, sleep problems, and rapid heartbeat are typical signs that you have too much coffee in your life . One should not take the example of Honoré de Balzac, who, according to rumors, drank several dozen cups of espresso in just one day.

True, his biographer Victor Soden Pritchett calls a much more modest figure: 3-4 cups of coffee per day. But if the working day was extended by 15 hours, Balzac increased the dose. Sometimes he just picked up a handful of grain and gnawed it, just to keep from falling asleep. Dependence on caffeine along with workaholism and lack of sleep undermined his health. The story of the writer is a vivid example of the fact that the love of coffee is good until you start using the drink as an energy booster, neglecting rest and sleep.

 

But in order to reduce caffeine consumption , it is not enough to simply replace coffee with chicory. After all, tea, like sweet carbonated water, chocolate and desserts, also contain this substance. Of course, the most caffeine is contained in espresso - about 250 mg in 100 ml of the drink . For comparison: in green tea, this indicator does not exceed 30 mg per 100 g. However, a lot depends on the number of drinks consumed : fans of green tea can consume much more caffeine without even noticing it, if they do not limit themselves to a couple of cups a day.

The method of preparation of the drink is also important : the caffeine content in strong black tea and a cup of latte will be approximately the same. And yes, decaffeinated coffee also contains caffeine . It's just that there is very little of it there: about 8 mg per serving, which is less than in oolong. Why, if you are determined to give up caffeine , you should switch to chicory or other coffee substitutes , or just water. Or remember Galen's wellness advice: the main thing in a healthy lifestyle is not radicalism, but moderation in everything.

 

Hidden damage

And yet there is a danger beyond caffeine in the habit of ending your lunch with a cappuccino . Let's consider it on the example of another supporter of an invigorating drink , from which one should not take an example - Seren Kierkegaard. He kept more than 50 coffee pairs at home and each of them was unique. Choosing the one from which the Danish philosopher will drink coffee after dinner turned into a real ritual every time. But the drink itself , which, according to Kierkegaard, stimulated the work of his brain, was quite peculiar.

"He joyfully grabbed a bag of sugar and began to pour white powder into the cup until he filled a mountain higher than the edges of the cup," wrote his biographer Joachim Garff. "Then a stream of black, extremely strong coffee slowly dissolved this white pyramid, and before the process was over, the stimulating syrup was already disappearing in the teacher's stomach." Just the description made my mouth water. Not everyone will decide on such an experiment. However, many of us often order a cup of ginger-spiced latte from a coffee shop, the sugar content of which would surprise even Kierkegaard.

 

One such drink contains the daily norm of sugar. With all the desire, it cannot be called useful, or at least safe. And the drink is very distantly related to coffee itself. And we are not talking about the snobbery of professional baristas. Quality coffee does not need additional sugar.

Fresh grain contains monosaccharides that caramelize during roasting, giving the drink a soft, somewhat sweet aftertaste. Properly roasted grain is not bitter. But you can feel fruity, caramel or acidic notes in it. Of course, if you do not interrupt them with cream, sugar or syrup.

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