Who the heck knows!?! I feel like you hear people both touting the great benefits of coffee or saying that too much will kill you.

So I decided to try to settle the debate, which ended up being an epic failure.

I found this the other day on Leangains Facebook page. This article tells you that more than 1 cup of coffee per day has great health benefits for you. This article definitely made me think that coffee is good for you.

So I had to go in search of articles that didn’t agree. I honestly struggled to find anything recent that stated the negative effects of coffee (so maybe the debate is over?)

I did find that all of the common negative effects of coffee were linked to caffeine, such as the fact that the caffeine in coffee can cause lower bone mineral density.

Also, there is lots of debate as to whether or not coffee is good or bad for your cardiovascular health.

Caffeine blocking adenosine constricts the brain’s blood vessels. The heart beats rate increases, muscles tighten, the blood pressure booms, blood vessels near the surface constrict and more blood flows to the muscles.

I then found this…which made me kind of laugh:

Coffee can kill you! Just as any other drug, in small amounts, caffeine (and coffee) is a stimulant. But the coffee plant synthesizes the alkaloid with the purpose of killing its natural consumers. The grazer eating too much coffee will die. We, too, may be killed. The uncontrolled heart beats are the prelude of a heart attack.

Over 400 mg of caffeine (found in 4-5 cups of brewed coffee) can cause caffeine intoxication. Some even snort caffeine powder, which results in a more rapid and intense reaction. The symptoms are just like those induced by any other drug: restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, face flushing, increased urination, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, a rambling flow of thought and speech, irritability, irregular heart beat, and psychomotor agitation.

So, you have to drink 80 to 100 cups of coffee very quickly to die… This also varies with the coffee variety, and cup size, as this determines how much caffeine enters your body. Actually, cases of death caused by coffee drinking have not been reported yet (at least from rapid drinking; the chronic effects are another story) but caffeine pills (just 2 g) are much more effective and have been proven lethal.

So coffee can either kill you or prevent a lot of bad diseases. Which is it? Anyone know?

My thoughts – Everything in moderation! If you don’t drink 80 cups of coffee a day (or NEED it to function) you are probably going to be fine!