With over 400 billion cups being slurped up each year, there have been countless studies on coffee and how it effects our health. What should we believe?

Coffee is notable for its caffeine content. So let’s take a look at caffeine, what it is, and what it does in the body.

Caffeine’s chemical name is 1,3, 7- trimethylxanthine. Caffeine is an alkaloid. Alkaloids are found in cola nuts, coffee, tea, cacao beans, mate (the Argentinian tea) and other plants.

Caffeine essentially stimulates the central nervous system, cardiac muscle, and respiratory system increasing intellectual activities and learning ability. It’s also a diuretic. People usually drink coffee and ingest caffeine for one principle reason – to wake up.

Caffeine is absorbed in the body between 15 and 45 minutes after ingestion and can remain in the body for up to 20 hours (depending on the age, sex, hormone condition, medication, and other habits like tobacco and alcohol use). That’s a long time. The average half-life of caffeine in the body is approximately 5 hours.

The recommended amount of caffeine ingested depends on the aforementioned variables (age, sex, hormone condition etc.). For the average, healthy person, however, 3 - 4 cups of coffee/day is not too much (of course depending on how “charged” those cups are). In Spain, two strong espressos, as thick as pea soup are usually consumed in the morning and after lunch. Sometimes an additional café con leche is needed to make it through the evening. In Northern European countries, coffee is much more diluted and consumed throughout the day during meals and as a beverage.

Caffeine’s effect on people differs with each individual. Some people are quite sensitive to caffeine and have to reduce intake to a minimum while others ingest it in copious amounts. There have been countless studies by the AMA, National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, FDA, CDC and more to find out how caffeine might play a role in cancer, heart disease, birth defects, fertility problems, etc. There has been absolutely no conclusive evidence to show that caffeine consumed in moderation is a health risk or associated with chronic health problems. Again, each individual’s reaction to caffeine differs.