  Vancouver's Professional Nutrition Service |
  Back Home |
As seen on BCTV April 24/01 IT'S NOT JUST THE CAFFEINE IN YOUR COFFEE... Current evidence suggests that 400-450 mg caffeine /day poses no health threat to healthy adults. This is the equivalent of 4 cups of coffee or 6 shots of espresso. However, it's not just the caffeine in coffee that is of concern. Heavy coffee drinkers also tend to have other poor health habits such as only having coffee and a muffin for breakfast, smoking on their coffee breaks, they tend to drink more alcohol and may eat higher fat foods. Coffee also contains oils, cafestol and kahweol. In filtered coffee they are removed, but if you drink unfiltered coffee or espresso you could be raising the triglycerides and LDL cholesterol levels in your blood. Some health concerns with caffeine is that it interferes with iron absorption, of particular concern for women and teens. Caffeine also has a negative effect on bones, but adding milk can help compensate for this. Other studies have shown that excess caffeine intake (more than 10 cups/day) has been linked to infertility, low birth weight babies, cleft palates and missing fingers and toes. Caffeine can also affect blood pressure, PMS headaches and sleep disturbances. Excess caffeine can cause irritability and also affects appetite and mood. Of particular interest to me is the growing number of young teens drinking coffee today. Many teens tend not to eat lunch at school and then after school, starved, they head over to the coffee shop for a Frappuccino and scone. Not only are they missing out on a nutritious lunch, they are replacing it with a high fat, high sugar item mid afternoon which will likely reduce their appetite for dinner and they may skip dinner and just have snacks in the evening. This pattern will likely lead to poor bone health, anemia and potentially weight gain. Ordering your morning coffee at the coffee shop used to be easy: "Would you like cream or sugar?" Now we need to know sizes, small medium or large has become short, tall, grande or venti. You then need to choose the milk, skim, 2%, whole or half and half. Would you like is hot or iced? What type of coffee is the hardest choice. From a simple cup of coffee, to a capuccino, latte, mocha, caramel macchiato, frappucino etc. Then you can also add a flavoured syrup, an extra shot of espresso or even whipping cream. Not only do these extras add to the price, they also add to the calories. Once you thought a coffee and small muffin was 130 calories. Now if your aren't careful, your morning java can turn into a 500 calorie milkshake. If you add a snack you can add another 200-300 calories. At 800 calories for coffee break, (more than an average meal), you risk over consuming for the day. Here are some tips to help you choose a coffee that won't bust your caloric budget.
|
|
