The Pros and Cons of Caffeine

It’s 6.00am on a Monday morning and everyone is getting ready for another long week at work… At this early hour a lot of individuals, me included, will go straight for some coffee, tea or another form of caffeine. We drink it from machines in the luxury of our homes or choose to spend a small fortunes on it in branded coffee shops, but is all this caffeine really good for us?

I have no personal vendetta against coffee and believe there’s a time and place for caffeine in all forms. I also happen to love the taste, especially coffee, and therefore also use it as a “pick me up” throughout the day. On a physical note caffeine has also been proven to boost sports performance, endurance and recovery times when training when consumed 30-60 minutes prior to exertion and can temporarily increase your metabolism, which is great when training for fat loss.

Over indulging in this black liquid is where I would urge caution however. Consuming >600mg caffeine a day (5 cups coffee +) will put a lot of stress onto some of your bodily functions/system. Your adrenal gland function will suffer and your cortisol levels (stress related hormone) will be left continuously high which is something you definitely don’t want in the long run. Caffeine also acts as a natural diuretic and drinking too much will lead to dehydration especially if training.

If you love your coffee and tea please don’t feel like you need to cut it out of your daily routine but aim to limit your intake to about 2-3 cups a day and remember these are not the only sources of caffeine, fizzy drinks (e.g. coca cola/red bull), sweets and chocolates, also contain caffeine.

Finally, try and avoid consuming any caffeine past 5pm as this can affect your quality of sleep.

Enjoy your next Monday morning better informed!

• Black coffee (Instant)          - 60-10mg (Depends on serving)
• Black coffee (Brewed)        - 100-400mg (Depends on serving)
• Single shot of Espresso       - 75mg
• Tea                                          - 30-50mg (Depends on serving and brew time)
• Green tea                              - 25-50mg (Depends on serving and brew time)

Thanks for reading.

sjp@tonbridge-school.org

 Coffee can help boost your performance