Why coffee is good for you

Excessive caffeine can cause dehydration. Some people find it makes them jittery or anxious. Experts recommend sticking to less than milligrams of caffeine per day. An 8-ounce cup of coffee typically has 80 mg to mg of caffeine, which works out to about four cups a day. The jury is still out on whether higher caffeine intake poses a risk. Caffeine in coffee can stay in your system for several hours after your last sip. To play it safe, stick to decaf in the evening. Coffee, anyone? Learn more about vaccine availability.

Advertising Policy. You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter. Drinking regular coffee instead of these sugar-sweetened beverages, or others like soda or juice, however, has positive effects on health. Coffee may impart a number of health benefits over time, but certain groups should approach consumption carefully. Not much is known about the effects of coffee on children. Meanwhile, caffeine has been found to have negative impacts on pregnancies.

And for some, including people with panic or anxiety disorders , too much caffeine or its coffee equivalent can cause anxiety or other unwanted side effects. She has researched how certain gene variants influence this process. To make matters more complicated, this response can vary over different populations that may have evolved to tolerate more or less caffeine.

This leaves coffee in a somewhat unusual position. To equate caffeine dependence with more serious substance use issues would serve to minimize them, Cornelis says. Register or Log In. The Magazine Shop. Login Register Stay Curious Subscribe. Newsletter Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news. These findings are consistent with research from other parts of the world, including the US.

The potential benefit of coffee could go further. Both decaffeinated and caffeinated coffee have similar amounts of antioxidants Credit: Getty Images. Decaf coffee has similar amounts of antioxidants as normal coffee , research has found.

People who consume coffee may simply have better underlying health than people who choose not to, says Peter Rogers, who studies the effects of caffeine on behaviour, mood, alertness and attention at the University of Bristol.

Meanwhile, people who consume coffee regularly often have higher blood pressure, which should increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Clinical trials looking into coffee — which could better determine its benefits and risks — are rarer than population studies. But a group of researchers recently conducted a trial in which they observed the effects of drinking caffeinated coffee on blood sugar. Still, this kind of behaviour would have to happen repeatedly over time for the risk to accumulate.

Putting people into lab settings also brings up the question of how relevant the findings are to real life — indicating that neither population, or lab research can provide definitive answers on how coffee affects our health. Advice on caffeinated coffee consumption is particularly confusing in pregnancy. However, the Food Standard Agency advises pregnant and breastfeeding women not to have more than one to two cups of coffee per day.

This year, a review of previous studies concluded that pregnant women should cut out coffee entirely to reduce the risk of miscarriage, low birth weight and stillbirth. A review of previous studies concluded that pregnant women should cut out caffeinated coffee entirely Credit: Getty Images. Emily Oster, economist and author of the book Expecting Better, which explores the data behind around pregnancy recommendations, also found guidance around coffee to be inconsistent.

Caffeine is a psychoactive drug, which means it affects our cognition.