Coffee and Health – Question the Hype

Here on this blog I talk a lot about health and on my other (more popular) blog INeedCoffee, I publish content related to coffee. One might think that I would be a big cheerleader on the health benefits of coffee. I’m not.

Even though I love coffee, I am skeptical that coffee can offer much benefit to people ALREADY following a healthy lifestyle. I emphasize the word already because for the person that isn’t consuming a nutrient-dense diet, coffee helps due to the high levels of anti-oxidants.

Yesterday, I posted a new article on INeedCoffee that you might find interesting. The Coffee Lover’s Diet – 10 Ideas from the Book are some notes I took on a recent coffee health book.

These types of articles tend to be popular with coffee drinkers. They want to be told that their daily habit is making them healthy and any story that confirms that belief is to be read and shared. And since they are on the path to healthy, why not grab a scone or muffin? 🙄

Years ago I posted 5 Coffee News Stories That I Never Want To Read About Ever Again. Number one on that list was coffee cheerleading stories.

Please don’t send me any stories that glamorize the health benefits of coffee. I won’t read them, because they do nothing to improve my health. Remember, we are already drinking coffee. The only people who might benefit from these stories are people who love and can tolerate coffee, but have stopped drinking it for fear it was damaging their health. That isn’t us though.

So if I can’t stand coffee health articles, why did I just post a new one? I did it, so I could add some criticism to the book itself.

Coffee or caffeine in general can greatly reduce the quality of your sleep. And when sleep quality drops, lots of other health issues can develop. Check out the book Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker, Ph.D. for more information on sleep.

The article was written to pull in your average coffee drinker that wanted to be told once again that their habit is going to make them healthy, but I balanced the positive message with a call to learn more about sleep and the role coffee has on it.

I suspect the health benefits of coffee are minor if you are eating a nutrient dense diet full of antioxidants and are exercising. Getting sleep right would yield far greater benefits, even if that means avoiding coffee 100%. That is my opinion.

We all have our own unique responses to caffeine and they might change over time. Experiment. Don’t trust some click bait article that tells you drinking 5 or more cups of coffee a day will make you immortal. Solve for sleep first. There are too many examples of people that either don’t drink coffee or quit coffee that have amazing health.