Coffee is a phenomenal product, and it is one I have grown to love over the years. Initially I read that coffee has a fat burning effect if administered prior to exercise, so there I was forcing a black coffee down me before training. Yeah, I didn’t like it, but day in day out I consumed it and now, now I can’t live without it. Black coffee is the GOAT. People who put milk in coffee are just absolute FRAUDs, they’re fakes. Anyway, onto the real topic of discussion, the health benefits of coffee. This may take a while… *Disclaimer, more is not better, as we will conclude with after our discussion.
All Cause Mortality:
In studies where they recorded the risk if death after consuming the highest levels of administered coffee (7 cups) risk if death decreased by 10% [1] . So go and grab a coffee and continue reading. However, the best health outcome was after only 3 cups were consumed compared with zero coffee intake. This is where individual differences come interplay like the ability of ones liver to detoxify and so on, but we won’t get into that too much today. The correlation between coffee consumption and all cause mortality has been pretty consistent over the years.
Diabetes:
Diabetes in a global epidemic, which is not outlined enough in my opinion. The cost of diabetics to the globe is extortionate, and the fact most if not all cases are preventable and reversible without chronic medical intervention and consequent cost, blows my mind. Coffee has been connected with lower risk of diabetes. After adjusting for multiple covariates, a great study by Yarmolinsky in 2015 shows that drinking up to 3 coffees per day is associated with lower risk of diabetes by up to 26%. [2] This effect appears to act primarily on regulating post-prandial glucose concentrations. This study proved that as a non-diabetic, increasing your intake of coffee to 2-3 cups per day had a preventative effect in developing T2D.
Neurological Diseases:
Coffee consumption has had multiple studies that proves it lowers the risk of Parkinson’s, Depression, and cognitive disorders. Again 3 cups per day seemed to be the ideal administration for optimal outcome [3]. For dose-response analysis, evidence of a linear association was found between coffee consumption and depression, and the risk of depression decreased by 8% [4]. Coffee has been shown to protect against and in some cases reverse memory losss, and cases of Alzheimers disease. It is theorised that this is because it affects plasma levels on amyloid-beta, which is a protein that can build up in the brain and cause Alzheimers. Again, there are deep considerations to be made here with the implications relating to caffeine consumption, sleep, amyloid build up, glymphatic drainage and cognitive function.
Cardio-Vascular Disease:
Again, the best outcome shave been shown to result from 3 cups per day. This consumption can be associated with a 19% decrease risk from CVD, and a 30% reduction is risk of strokes. As the causes of CVD are so broad, and multi-faceted it is hard to make direct reason as to why coffee improves ur CVD risk.
Anti-oxidant and Anti-Radical effect of coffee:
Everyone is exposed to oxidative stress, that’s just life. We can reduce our exposures and we can also help mitigate the effects. Coffee is one way of doing so. Prolonged oxidative stress inevitably leads to dangerous diseases - such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, or diabetes - and premature ageing. many of the benefits of coffee are largely due to it anti-oxidant content, specifically related to the chlorogenic acids, a potent polyphenolic anti-oxidant found in coffee. It should be made aware that anti-oxidant and anti-radical are not synonymous. Anti-oxidants are an inhibiting factor to free radicals but anti-radical activity relates to reaction with existing free radicals. Coffee does possess anti-radical content, therefore consuming coffee can not only inhibit the oxidative process, but will and can reverse it once oxidative damage has occurred [5]
Fat Oxidation: ‘Fat Burning’
Caffeine decreases activation of anabolic pathways (mTORC1) which will ultimately result in initiating lipolysis and autophagy [6]. Caffeine also increases mitochondrial β-oxidation activity as we will shortly get into, but this gets a little ‘sciencey’.
Over-expression of TFEB ( the master gene for lysosomal biogenesis) in mouse livers significantly inhibits diet-induced steatosis (abnormal retention of cellular lipids) and obesity. In addition to regulating autophagy, TFEB also activates peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα), two key transcriptional regulators for mitochondrial biogenesis and lipid catabolism. Caffeine might activate TFEB because of its inhibition of mTORC1. Activated TFEB might be responsible for the caffeine-induced lipophagic response and lipolysis, mitochondrial bioenergetics and β-oxidation [7]. To try to break this down to make better understanding, this mechanistically tells us that caffeine consumption will inhibit pathways that promote growth, including the growth of fat cells. It will also help express genes that regulate autophagy (cell death and recycling), mitochondrial biogenesis (formation of new mitochondria, thus more efficiency in burning energy substrates), and also activate β-oxidation which is the metabolic pathway for burning fat tissue.
Implications:
As we all know, coffee is an enjoyable and healthy beverage to consume, but just like any other ‘good thing’ more is not better. This certainly applies to coffee consumption. As already mentioned, the ideal amount to consume is give or take 3 cups as presented in most of the studies I have referenced. The same studies proved 7 cups had a beneficial effect, but not to the same level of 3 cups. Caffeine intake timing has a profound effect on sleep quality, thus the detrimental effects we may encounter while sleep deprived, that dramatically outweigh the advantages of more coffee intake. We also have to consider if the 3 cups a day are replacing other fluid intake, and potentially resulting in dehydration or other nutrient deficiencies. Again we will see more detrimental effects if this is the case. Moreover, if people are relying on coffee as a stimulant. In this scenario, coffee may improve alertness and cognitive function and reduce risk of all-cause mortality, but if the same person was to improve initial recovery markers and sleep hygiene, as well as implement coffee as a beneficial factor to reducing all-cause mortality, I would argue you would see far more advantageous results.
Published by Luke French, Health Coach | 20th July 2020
Citations:
[1] Grosso, G., Micek, A., Godos, J. et al. Coffee consumption and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality in smokers and non-smokers: a dose-response meta-analysis. Eur J Epidemiol 31, 1191–1205 (2016).
[2] Yarmolinsky J, Mueller NT, Duncan BB, Bisi Molina Mdel C, Goulart AC, Schmidt MI. Coffee Consumption, Newly Diagnosed Diabetes, and Other Alterations in Glucose Homeostasis: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil). PLoS One. 2015;10(5):e0126469. Published 2015 May 15. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0126469
[3] Qi H, Li S. Dose-response meta-analysis on coffee, tea and caffeine consumption with risk of Parkinson's disease. Geriatr Gerontol Int. 2014;14(2):430-439. doi:10.1111/ggi.12123
[4] Wang L, Shen X, Wu Y, Zhang D. Coffee and caffeine consumption and depression: A meta-analysis of observational studies. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2016;50(3):228-242. doi:10.1177/0004867415603131
[5] Yashin A, Yashin Y, Wang JY, Nemzer B. Antioxidant and Antiradical Activity of Coffee. Antioxidants (Basel). 2013;2(4):230-245. Published 2013 Oct 15. doi:10.3390/antiox2040230
[6] Caffeine stimulates hepatic lipid metabolism by the autophagy-lysosomal pathway in mice.
Sinha RA, Farah BL, Singh BK, Siddique MM, Li Y, Wu Y, Ilkayeva OR, Gooding J, Ching J, Zhou J, Martinez L, Xie S, Bay BH, Summers SA, Newgard CB, Yen PM 2014
[7] Ding WX. Drinking coffee burns hepatic fat by inducing lipophagy coupled with mitochondrial β-oxidation. Hepatology. 2014;59(4):1235-1238. doi:10.1002/hep.26736
Personal trainer in your local area of Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge and Hildenborough. Offering expert personal training for fat loss, weight loss, fitness, body composition improvements, muscle building and optimal health and wellness.
Comments