WEBVTT - Is Coffee Good or Bad for You?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain stuff. From How Stuff Works, Hey, rain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Lauren Bogle bam here coffee is a beverage with

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<v Speaker 1>laura and legend as rich as a double caramel latte,

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<v Speaker 1>but far more contrary. An advertisement from the first coffee

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<v Speaker 1>house in England promoted coffee is good against sore eyes

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<v Speaker 1>and excellent to prevent and cure the dropsy, gout and scurvy.

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<v Speaker 1>But in the early seventeen hundreds, Germans believed the beverage

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<v Speaker 1>made women sterile. But an old wives tale states that

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<v Speaker 1>if bubbles appear in your java, you're due to come

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<v Speaker 1>into some money, which wouldn't be a bad thing considering

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<v Speaker 1>the price of a cup of these days. In more

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<v Speaker 1>recent times, another idea took hold of the public's imagination

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<v Speaker 1>regarding coffee, that it had the power to stunt a

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<v Speaker 1>child's growth. But just as a pot of coffee boiling

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<v Speaker 1>over doesn't actually mean that it's going to rain, which

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<v Speaker 1>was a thing that people thought at one point. The

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<v Speaker 1>assertation that the drink makes for a nation of hobbits

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<v Speaker 1>has been proven false. How coffee got associated with this

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<v Speaker 1>smith is clo in the espresso steam of history, but

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<v Speaker 1>most experts agree that it has something to do with

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<v Speaker 1>an early study linking caffeine to reduced bone mass and osteoporosis.

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<v Speaker 1>Those studies, however, were conducted on elderly people whose diets

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<v Speaker 1>were lacking in calcium, which could easily have explained the

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<v Speaker 1>loss of bone mass. Subsequent studies showed that women ages

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<v Speaker 1>sixty five to seventy seven who drank about eighteen ounces

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<v Speaker 1>of caffeine daily did have greater bone loss over a

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<v Speaker 1>three year period than those who did not, But the

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<v Speaker 1>effects occurred only in women with unusual variations in their

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<v Speaker 1>vitamin D cell receptors, and the effects were completely mitigated

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<v Speaker 1>if the women ingested their recommended daily one thousand, two

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<v Speaker 1>hundred milligrams of calcium. Focusing exclusively on children, a more

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<v Speaker 1>recent study tracked eighty one teenagers for six years. The

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<v Speaker 1>result there was no difference in bone density between the

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<v Speaker 1>biggest buzz catchers and those who drank the least amount

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<v Speaker 1>of caffeine. But just because a cup of Joe won't

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<v Speaker 1>keep your little Joe's and Josephine's pint sized all their

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<v Speaker 1>lives thus mean that there isn't cause to be concerned

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<v Speaker 1>about children and coffee these days, coffee creations can seem

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<v Speaker 1>more like a dessert than a simple pick me up

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<v Speaker 1>in a cup. The Starbucks menu include such treats as

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<v Speaker 1>a mint mocha chip frappuccino blended with chocolate and tapped

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<v Speaker 1>with whipped cream, while Duncan Donuts offers up vanilla bean

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<v Speaker 1>coolatta's that list corn syrup not once, but twice on

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<v Speaker 1>their ingredients list, along with sugar and sweetened condensed skim milk.

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<v Speaker 1>So although it's been proven that there are relatively minor

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<v Speaker 1>health issues associated with caffeine jitteriness, anxiety, heartburn, insomnia, it's

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<v Speaker 1>actually the other ingredients that are added to coffee, especially sugar,

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<v Speaker 1>that have nutritionists worried. It's no secret that America has

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<v Speaker 1>a burgeting problem with childhood obesity and diabetes, and eight

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and sixty calorie packed drinks like the large Kolatta

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<v Speaker 1>are not helping. This is particularly troubling when, according to

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<v Speaker 1>the National Coffee Association, eighteen to twenty four year olds

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<v Speaker 1>represent the fastest growing segment of people turning on to

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<v Speaker 1>coffee every year. In addition to expand and young waistlines,

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<v Speaker 1>coffee can cause the amouth to dry out, which contributes

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<v Speaker 1>to tooth decay. The problem is compounded by the fact

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<v Speaker 1>that the tanic acid in coffee can stain teeth enamel,

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<v Speaker 1>giving some grins an unwanted mocuchi. No tinge, and coffee

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<v Speaker 1>doesn't just affect the health of twenty some things. Pregnant

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<v Speaker 1>women are also warned to consume no more than two

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<v Speaker 1>cups per day. Researchers in England found that pregnant women

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<v Speaker 1>who drank more than two hundred milligrams of caffeine per day,

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<v Speaker 1>the amount in two average sized cups of coffee, were

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<v Speaker 1>more likely to give birth to underweight babies. Lower birth

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<v Speaker 1>weights can also lead to spontaneous miscarriages, another health concern

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<v Speaker 1>with which caffeine has previously been associated. But if you

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<v Speaker 1>relatively limit your caffeine intake, drink enough water, get enough calcium,

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<v Speaker 1>and don't add shovelfuls of sugar to your java, the

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<v Speaker 1>health benefits of coffee may far outweigh its negatives. Far

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<v Speaker 1>from being the devil's drink, as coffee was once called

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<v Speaker 1>by Christians in the fifteen hundreds, study upon study has

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<v Speaker 1>proven that coffee can have health benefits. At one time,

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<v Speaker 1>coffee was thought to have negative cardiovascular effects, including heart

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<v Speaker 1>attack and abnormal heart rhythms, although it does cause minor

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<v Speaker 1>and temporary increases in blood pressure. According to an Iowa

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<v Speaker 1>women's health study that tract twenty seven thousand women for

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<v Speaker 1>fifteen years, those who consumed one to three daily cups

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<v Speaker 1>of coffee reduced their overall risk of cardiovascular disease by

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<v Speaker 1>It was also once thought that coffee could be a

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<v Speaker 1>major contributing factor in pancreatic cancer, due to a Harvard study. However,

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<v Speaker 1>coffee's role as carston gen has since been disproven, and

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<v Speaker 1>current research has shown that it can help ward off

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<v Speaker 1>breast and uterine cancer in women but white. There's more,

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<v Speaker 1>A study of over a hundred and twenty five thousand

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<v Speaker 1>members of the Kaiser Permanente Health Plan showed that heavy

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<v Speaker 1>alcohol drinkers cut their risk of cirrhosis by per cup

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<v Speaker 1>of coffee per day, and even among non tipplers. Coffee

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<v Speaker 1>has been shown to slash liver cancer risk, and two

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<v Speaker 1>global studies have shown that coffee reduces the risk of

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<v Speaker 1>type two diabetes, sometimes up to even better. Those beneficial

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<v Speaker 1>effects are related to chlorogenic acid, which is found both

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<v Speaker 1>in decaf and regular brews. However, excess consumption of anything,

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<v Speaker 1>including caffeine, is never a good idea. The magic number

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<v Speaker 1>four coffees benefits seems to be between one and four

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<v Speaker 1>cups a day, So while the old wives tale about

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<v Speaker 1>coffee stunting your growth isn't really true, another piece of

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<v Speaker 1>traditional wisdom certainly is all things in moderation. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>was written by Michael Franco and produced by Tyler Clang,

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<v Speaker 1>with kind engineering assistance from Ramsey Young. For more on

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<v Speaker 1>this and lots of other piping hot topics, visit our

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<v Speaker 1>home planet, how Stuff Works dot com