Training & Nutrition - So why is Caffeine so "Bad" for you??

OK I admit I'm addicted to coffee...or at least to the caffeine that's in it. But I like it and would just like to know what, if anything, is so bad about caffeine?? Last time I checked my BP it was like 111/89 so it's obviously not affecting my BP all that much. Just like to find out now if it really is harmful so I can get off the stuff. :)

WHO says its bad??? In fact, if you look at some of the sports goos or gells, they contain caffeine (about the equivelant of a half-cup of coffee. And I believe that I was reading last night in the AugustBicycling that you should have a cup of coffee about 1/2 hour before a ride.

111/89 - the 89 is a bit high. New research shows it should be 80 or lower.

Caffeine does terrible things to me. So, I don't use it in any manner. But that is a personal choice. My wife has very low blood pressure, so she has one cupin the morning. Helps her to get going.

Sort of an individual matter, IMHO.

Some people can't handle it. I pity them. Personally, I think it's one of God's great gifts to humankind.

Signorina! Doppio, per favore! :)

In moderation I don't see anything wrong with caffeine. The oils in coffee are just as much of a reason to not drink too much every day.

Originally posted by DnvrFox
111/89 - the 89 is a bit high. New research shows it should be 80 or lower........

Maybe it was 111/79......I just remember it having a 9 in it....hehehe...... My mother is a registered nurse and she's the one that checked it. She said it was just about perfect. :)


Guess I won't worry about it too much. I know I could stop cold turkey if I wanted to, no big deal. But it sure is nice to have a shot of joe to get me going in the morning and even a cup after lunch to make it thru the afternoon at work. :)

http://home.howstuffworks.com/caffeine3.htm

This link gives a nice synopsis, you can see why it's recommended before some athletic activities.

Coffee is my friend, and I'm totally hooked. I brew my own at work and drink it all day long. My BP is always on the the low side. The group I ride with have a saying "we ride for coffee". Coffee is our reward after our weekend morning rides. Zabars in New York is where I get my coffee from. I'm a big fan of Gevalia. I can take or leave Starbucks. A friend who has two drive through coffee places in Denver calls it "Charbucks" because they over roast their coffee in his opinion, and I agree.

Bill,
you are singing my song. I used to buy great coffee back in the 70's; and I can't seem to find anything that good now for love or threats of violence.
White House used to sell these one pound sacks of their best Columbian. The sacks were small imitations of coffee shipping sacks. I used to drink it straight occasionally, despite being a cream and sugar guy. Maybe I ought to try Gevalia.

I don't drink coffee, but I do love Dr. Peppers!

YUM!

Coffee is the nectar of the gods. Sometimes I wonder if I can start the morning without it, but then I realize that I did for a number of years. They just opened an Lavazza about 300 yards from my house, equadistant is a Starbucks to the right, and we have an Intelligencia near my work downtown. What more could one want? The best of all coffee worlds ... I usually only drink Americano's during the week but on the weekend I endulge in the foofoo coffee.

Nothing like the taste of a well brewed cup of dark roast. Mmmmm.
In moderation, I don't think there's anything wrong with coffee.
I'll have a cup of coffee maybe 5 days a week. For some reason I love it in the summer in the middle of the day.
Can't stomache it first thing in the morning. I need to eat first and get the day going.
Circle K dark roast is my favorite.

Do check out the Bicycle Coffee System at
http://nordicgroup.us/bikecoff/

They have lots of totally unbiased info on why coffee and cycling are made for each other.

I used to consume coffee by the quart. When I stopped, I was miserable for days. I no longer drink coffee because I don't want or need the artificial stimulation. I now drink green tea where I used to drink coffee. It has some caffiene, but not nearly as much as coffee.

Coffee has pros:

It is a mild stimulant and can temporarily increase awareness
It can help with a headache
I have read that moderate coffee consumption lowers your risk for prostate cancer
You can get a "bottomless" cup at some diners. You hardly ever see this with soda or tea.

and Cons:

It is easy to over-consume and mildy addictive.
It interferes with sleep.
It depresses your appetite
The stimulation it provides has to be paid for later with a "crash", or feeling of general fatigue.


Also GU contains about 25mg/serving of caffeine, Starbucks coffee contains over 500mg/serving. A regular coffee drinker wouldn't even notice the amount of caffiene in GU.

Dan

I concur that it is a individual matter. I personally perform well after a good cup of my own fresh roasted coffee.
Yep I am a coffe snob. I buy the beans green, roast them at home, and always have a fresh cup of coffee. Roasting is easy, less expensive, and tastes better. Plus you can adjust how light or dark that you prefer it.

Recent studies have shown that Coffee is no more of a diuretic than water. Being a runner, I have found that some folks have to have a cup before there run, and others just cannot tolerate well.One guy Iknow who also runs & cycles, said that it makes him have to stop & go to the bathroom constantly. Whereas, it doesn't seem to bother me, anymore than other liquids.

So if you can stomach it, go for it. Just remember this, "everything in moderation".

MichaelW - I've seen this site..it's pretty interesting. Lot's of good details about how to ride and drink coffee. I especially like the button for republicans.

i love coffee... but i lay off it as much as possible these days.

why coffee is bad:

it is a diuretic - it increases the permeability of tubules in your nephrons to water, meaning you're leaking water out of your blood into your bladder. increasing water intake won't help- you'll just end up peeing a larger volume of water. alcohol is also a diuretic, so if you want to know what dehydration is like, just remember all the peeing you did after that big party - or the huge headache and the general crappy feeling you felt.

as Dan so eloquently described - the high is followed by a crash... and you don't want this to happen to you at the end of a long ride.

caffeine can elevate your BP and your HR and also breathing rate. of course exercise will do this too, but i'm not sure of how good an idea it is to bump up your baseline rates for these three physiological measures

My take on caffeine is that it should not be used as a "fuel", but it would probably be good for that extra boost right before the end of a race or a long ride. caffeine is known to stimulate the release of adrenaline, so if you consider how your body responds to adrenaline, you know that it can only take you so far before you crash.

Delirious5 there have been recent studies supporting the fact that coffee is no longer considered a diuretic anymore than water. This was in last months runners world magazine. I realize that it can have different effects on each individual, but I am not a major coffee drinker. I have around 20 ounces each morning,and some days none at all. My point is that I have never had the so called high feeling & than crashed. I am using my history of long runs, which would be anywhere from 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

I feel like anything else you have to experiment for yourselve. What works for one of us, or more, may be detrimental to the next.

water is not a diuretic. every time i drink coffee, i have to pee and crap within 30 mins.

anyways i took a look at that coffee and bicycling site, and i noticed one major flaw in the sources quoted in defense of caffeine intake: they say that caffeine won't dehydrate you because you're drinking it with water.

well what is neglected is that you're taking a very dehydrating activity to begin with (cycling) and increasing your rate of/susceptibility to dehydration with another (caffeine).

if you're sitting around in an office drinking coffee all day, you don't run any risk of dehydration.

I do agree that cycling/running are dehydrating exercises, especially in hot/humid weather. I am not totally agreeing with the studies, but you make a point, that I stated earlier. Everyone is different, so it is very hard to generalize. I have friends who have the same effect that you get. They cannot even do a short race without having to stop and go to the bathroom, sometimes more than once. I don't have that problem.

Using another analogy, those same people can eat a small breakfast a couple of hours before a race, and have no problems. If I eat anything even a 4 hours or so earlier, I will experience heartburn, and will need to stop & hit the bathroom during a race, or else I am in extreme discomfort. If I am running easy, than it isn't a problem. I find that with cycling I can get away with eating food much closer to starting a ride, which I guess probably makes sense.

I don't think there are any rights or wrongs here, unless you have a medical condition, such as, a heart condition that warrants not drinking caffeine.

studies suggest caffeine in coffee,and not the coffee, seems to prevent parkinson's disease

here is a link to a pretty good, longitudinal, prospective study http://nootropics.com/cafpd.html