Why should you moderate your coffee intake

 

How many calories per cup is your daily recommended intake? The answer to that question has a lot to do with the fact that if you're a regular coffee drinker, what many people like to think of as "regular" means having 100 grams of sugar in a single cup of coffee. But when we look at the percentage of total energy intake it's easy to see just how much extra carbs and fats our body needs to function and stay healthy. It's a good idea to keep yourself fairly moderate when it comes to caffeine though…but don't let yourself get too high on the "regular", which isn't very healthy for most of us.

In general I would advise limiting your regular intake of coffee to 2–4 cups per day (or 1) — but no more than 2 or 3 cups per day (or less often). In my own experience I've never been a big fan of caffeine anyway, so it can be hard to stick to a small, manageable intake of caffeine. However, I'm willing to admit that there are some benefits you probably won't get with only one cup of coffee every morning — such as an energizing boost after being up at 5.5 or working out.

There are numerous studies showing that drinking coffee can help improve overall health, but they aren't quite as clear as most people think. Most of these studies aren't even based on double-blind trials — meaning that the participants were divided into two groups that weren't allowed to know whether they were getting the same amount of caffeine in them or not. So these studies don't really compare apples and oranges. They're mostly looking at a group of people with no underlying medical conditions— for example, people who have diabetes or kidney failure, people who have high blood pressure in their family. Also, coffee drinkers on average tend to be older and have higher levels of obesity than non-drinkers. People with high cholesterol and other chronic diseases usually don't need a huge dose of coffee in the first place! One thing I'd like to warn against though is the occasional hit and miss amount of caffeine needed. Studies also show that those women over age 40 who consume lots of caffeine are at an increased risk of Type 2 Diabetes later in life — so it's worth noting that people under 40 and 30 should generally avoid excessive amounts of caffeine. Even people who already have low levels of anxiety or depression tend to tolerate relatively high amounts of caffeine—so it's best to just stay away from caffeine altogether if you can! And remember, don't drink your coffee to stay awake at night - it's known to increase your heart rate, but there's no reason why your heart rate should go all the way up until 9pm every day, especially if it's just a short run-up to bedtime. If you live somewhere warm then you probably shouldn't be waking up at 5am on a weekday, so start slowly and work your way up before you get that much winded.

Some of those studies didn't even measure the number of hours each individual drank their coffee. Some people drank about 4.3 hours of coffee, others drank 25.8 hours. Also, there's no way of knowing for sure whether or not a single cup of coffee will give someone a certain effect on brain weight. There are some scientific studies saying you should try 3 or 4 more cups, however, so I'd recommend trying 2-3 cups. Just try to stay within a couple of cups of coffee a day. Don't think you need to rely solely upon the caffeine content of your favorite beverage, but having a few more cups of coffee per day may be useful because it helps with the stress and anxiety that happens naturally on our days. That extra cup may give you a bit of a wake-up call or a little more motivation to exercise or do any form of physical activity! Or maybe even give you a bit of inspiration to tackle problems you might otherwise ignore…and will help push you towards healthier habits in the future.