BrainStuff Classics: Is Coffee Good or Bad for You?

Will coffee really stunt your growth? Or give you heart problems? What about your teeth? Learn the truth behind common myths about that cuppa joe in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/coffee-stunt-growth.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hi
brain Stuff. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum and this this is another
classic from our archives. In this episode we consider coffee,
which I am drinking as I write this intro. Every
few years, it seems there's another round of mildly sensational
headlines about how it's great for you or the very worst.

(00:25):
So let's break down the science. Hey, brain Stuff, Lauren
vogel Bomb. Here. Coffee is a beverage with laura and legend,
as rich as a double caramel latte, but far more contrary.
An advertisement from the first coffee house in England promoted
coffee is good against sore eyes and excellent to prevent
and cure the dropsy, gout and scurvy. But in the

(00:49):
early seventeen hundreds, Germans believed the beverage made women sterile.
But an old wives tale states that have bubbles appear
in your java, you're due to come into some money,
which wouldn't be a bad thing considering the price of
a cup of these days. In more recent times, another
idea took hold of the public's imagination regarding coffee, that
it had the power to stunt a child's growth. But
just as a pot of coffee boiling over doesn't actually

(01:11):
mean that it's going to rain, which was a thing
that people thought at one point, the assertation that the
drink makes for a nation of hobbits has been proven false.
How coffee got associated with this myth is cloaked in
the espresso steam of history, but most experts agree that
it has something to do with an early study linking
caffeine to reduced bone mass and osteoporosis. Those studies, however,

(01:33):
were conducted on elderly people whose diets were lacking in calcium,
which could easily have explained the loss of bone mass.
Subsequent studies showed that women ages sixty five to seventy
seven who drank about eighteen ounces of caffeine daily did
have greater bone loss over a three year period than
those who did not, but the effects occurred only in
women with unusual variations in their vitamin D cell receptors,

(01:56):
and the effects were completely mitigated if the women ingested
they're recommended daily one thousand, two hundred milligrams of calcium.
Focusing exclusively on children, A more recent study tract eighty
one teenagers for six years. The result there was no
difference in bone density between the biggest buzz catchers and
those who drank the least amount of caffeine. But just

(02:18):
because a cup of Joe won't keep your little Joe's
and Josephine's pint sized all their lives doesn't mean that
there isn't cause to be concerned about children and coffee.
These days, coffee creations can seem more like a dessert
than a simple pick me up in a cup. The
Starbucks menu include such treats as a mint mocha chip
frappuccino blended with chocolate and tapped with whipped cream, while
Duncan Donuts offers up vanilla bean Kolata's that list corn

(02:41):
syrup not once, but twice on their ingredients list, along
with sugar and sweetened condensed skim milk. So although it's
been proven that there are relatively minor health issues associated
with caffeine jitteriness, anxiety, heartburn, insomnia, it's actually the other
ingredients that are added to coffee, especially sugar, that have
nutritionists worried. It's no secret that America has a burgeoning

(03:04):
problem with childhood obesity and diabetes, and eight hundred and
sixty calorie packed drinks like the large Koolatta are not helping.
This is particularly troubling when, according to the National Coffee Association,
eighteen to twenty four year olds represent the fastest growing
segment of people turning on to coffee every year. In
addition to expanding young waistlines, coffee can cause the mouth

(03:25):
to dry out, which contributes to tooth decay. The problem
is compounded by the fact that the tanic aciding coffee
can stain teeth enamel, giving some grins an unwanted mocuchi
no tinge and coffee doesn't just affect the health of twentysomethings.
Pregnant women are also warned to consume no more than
two cups per day. Researchers in England found that pregnant

(03:46):
women who drank more than two hundred milligrams of caffeine
per day, the amount in two average sized cups of coffee,
were more likely to give birth to underweight babies. Lower
birth weights can also lead to spontaneous miscarriages, another health
concern with which caffeine has previously been associated. But if
you relatively limit your caffeine intake, drink enough water, get

(04:06):
enough calcium, and don't add shovelfuls of sugar to your java.
The health benefits of coffee may far outweigh it's negatives.
Far from being the devil's drink, as coffee was once
called by Christians in the fifteen hundreds, study upon study
has proven that coffee can have health benefits. At one time,
coffee was thought to have negative cardiovascular effects, including heart

(04:26):
attack and abnormal heart rhythms, although it does cause minor
and temporary increases in blood pressure. According to an Iowa
women's health study that tract twenty seven thousand women for
fifteen years, those who consumed one to three daily cups
of coffee reduced their overall risk of cardiovascular disease by
It was also once thought that coffee could be a

(04:47):
major contributing factor in pancreatic cancer due to a Harvard study. However,
coffee's role as carston gen has since been disproven, and
current research has shown that it can help ward off
breast in uterine cancer in women but white. There's more.
A study of over a hundred and twenty five thousand
members of the Kaiser Permanente Health Plan showed that heavy

(05:08):
alcohol drinkers cut their risk of cirrhosis by per cup
of coffee per day, and even among non tipplers, coffee
has been shown to slash liver cancer risk, and two
global studies have shown that coffee reduces the risk of
type two diabetes, sometimes up to even better. Those beneficial
effects are related to chlorogenic acid, which is found both

(05:31):
in decalf and regular brews. However, excess consumption of anything,
including caffeine, is never a good idea. The magic number
four coffees benefits seems to be between one and four
cups a day. So while the old wives tale about
coffee stunting your growth isn't really true, another piece of
traditional wisdom certainly is all things in moderation today. This

(06:00):
episode is based on the article will drinking coffee really
Stunt Your Growth? On how stuff works dot com written
by Michael Franco. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart
Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and
it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.