Coffee time!

Cappuccino, espresso, latte macchiato or an ordinary cup of coffee. In general, Dutch people love coffee. They can't function properly without their average 3.1 cups of coffee a day.¹ Same for me - I am a coffee addict.

All over the world, the Scandinavian people are the number 1 coffee lovers. Surprisingly, the coffee-producing countries don't drink coffee that much.

Americans and Canadians are used for their large amount of coffee consumption as well. Then again, who wouldn't enjoy their coffee when you've got Starbucks. Poor us, the Dutchies, we just have one Starbucks at the airport Schiphol, one in Amsterdam itself and one in Utrecht. I know, our country is not that big, nevertheless it still takes some time (for me) to travel to those cities. So, no Starbucks for me..

Caffeine

A caffeine molecule

What's the reason people can get addicted to coffee? Well, the 'offender' is: caffeine. Caffeine takes care of the stimulating and addictive effects of coffee. You're less fatigue and more energetic by drinking coffee. This is because caffeine blocks the effect of the molecule adenosine in the brain. Caffeine will bind to the adenosine receptors in the body, as a result one will experience the energetic feeling. Other effects are the raise in blood pressure, pulse rate and stomach acid production. This increased stomach acid production is negative for people who already suffer from heartburn. Coffee with added milk (cappuccino, latte macchiato etc.) is better for those people. The reason for this is milk, this is a base (pH > 7) and it will make the coffee less acidic. Which is positive, considering the heartburn. Also, fat stores are broken down and fatty acids are released into the bloodstream by caffeine. Your metabolic rate speeds up too, which results in an increased usage of carbohydrates, proteins and fat.

By drinking coffee every day, your body will get used to these effects, it develops tolerance, so you'll experience a less increase in blood pressure, pulse rate and so on. 

Sport performance and caffeine

Caffeine is a drug, some people believe it will enhance your performance, especially endurance performances, because of the earlier explanation of masking the fatigue. Caffeine is well absorbed in the stomach and intestine, and the best effect occurs about 45 to 60 minutes after consuming one delicious cup of coffee. So if you'd like to enhance your performance, keep this in mind. 

Caffeine in very large amounts are harmful for your health, only in small amounts there will be a positive effect. That's the reason why caffeine is banned of the drug list a few years ago. The harmful effects could be anxiety, dizziness, headache, insomnia, diuresis and gastrointestinal distress. Athletes should keep the diuretic effect of caffeine in mind, it could cause dehydration, which is not good. There can also be problems with the heartbeat (too slow, too fast or regular and irregular beating).

The positive, performance enhancing effects have to do with glycogen. Glycogen is the fuel for our muscles, carbohydrates are used as glucose. An excess of glucose is stored in the body as glycogen. We can also use fat as a fuel, although glycogen is more effective. Because caffeine delays the usage of glycogen and stimulates the usage as fat, there will be glycogen sparing. This saved glycogen is available later during the performance, and one will be able to exercise longer until they get exhausted.

I like drinking coffee before a running race, maybe it's all psychic... I don't know, but it works for me. So I keep enjoying my coffee. :)

Conclusion: coffee might be performance enhancing, because of the glycogen sparing process and the stimulation effects. Just keep in mind that it can result in dehydration too, which is performance depravation.

Antioxidants and coffee 

Another extraordinary function of coffee (not caffeine) is their role as antioxidants. Antioxidants are substances or nutrients in our foods and also present in coffee. Formation of free radicals takes place in our bodies by metabolic reactions (with the usage of oxygen). Free radicals may hurt our body cells, tissues and organs by oxidative distress. Eventually this may lead to chronicle diseases, like cancer and coronary heart disease.The role of antioxidants is preventing or slowing down the oxidative damage to our body. 

Don't worry, people who don't like coffee, there are a lot of other foods which contain antioxidants, like citruis fruits, tomatoes, nuts and even red wine. 

Anyway, enough about coffee. I like the smell of it, the taste of it and as a plus it has a lot of benefits. I think a coffee addiction is not that bad! 

Btw, my favorite coffee is Caffe Latte, just wondering (if anyone is reading this blog), what's your favorite?? Or do you have an unknown delicious coffee recipe? Let me know!

© Marlou

References:

¹ See Wikipedia: subject “koffie”