Coffee And Vitamin/Mineral Depletion

If you drink coffee, you may be a special candidate for magnesium deficiency.

Since magnesium and calcium all work together to make your heart muscle contract in a regular rhythm, one of the first signs of a magnesium deficiency is an irregular heartbeat.

As a result of calcium/magnesium imbalance, calcium deposits may form on the heart muscle. If this happens, the heart cannot contract properly.

Magnesium is also important in breaking down fats you eat into fatty acids that can be useful in building body parts like nerve sheaths and cellular membranes. If those fats are not broken down properly, they begin to collect in deposits, which lodge on damaged arterial points. Thus a magnesium deficiency can increase you risks of contracting the two major degenerative heart diseases: atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis. Another point to remember in this regard is that magnesium is necessary for the synthesis of lecithin, which also helps break down those fats.

Coffee floods nutrients out of your body via the urine. This includes Vitamins A, D, E, K and essential fatty acids. This diuretic effect which is created when drinking coffee can also interfere with your absorption of iron simply because so many nutrients pass so quickly through the kidneys.

Although coffee contains water, it causes the body to excrete more water than it actually takes in. The result is a fluid deficit, which, over time, can lead to a variety of health problems, including dry skin, constipation and bladder infections.

Coffee can lead to a chronic deficiency of B vitamins.

Coffee can cause a buildup of toxins within the body, which increases your need for vitamin C and other antioxidants.

Two cups of coffee may contain 30 mg of caffeine. This is enough to raise your blood pressure and pulse rate significantly.

It has been shown that drinking two and half cups of coffee can more than double the stress hormone adrenaline.

The liver is forced to detoxify the caffeine from coffee, this puts more strain on the liver.

Research that has been done:

Researchers from the Netherlands studied the effect of coffee consumption on blood levels of homocysteine, a naturally occurring substance that forms when the body breaks down protein.

Elevated levels of homocysteine have long been associated with an increased risk of heart disease. Exactly how this amino acid harms the heart is unclear, but our best guess is that it either makes the blood clot more frequently or damages the lining of blood vessels in the heart. (Genetic defects and vitamin deficiencies have also been shown to cause an elevation in homocysteine.)

The Dutch researchers focused on strong, unfiltered coffee, and their results are not great news for folks who drink large quantities of caffeine. After just a two-week period of drinking six cups of unfiltered coffee a day, homocysteine concentrations increased 10% in subjects who started out with normal levels.

At the same time, cholesterol levels shot up 10% and triacylglycerols (other fatty substances) 36%--both precursors to artery-clogging atherosclerotic plaque. The bottom line, according to the authors: drinking 48 oz. of unfiltered coffee a day may carry a 10% increase in risk for heart attack or stroke.

An incidental but equally important finding was that levels of vitamin B-6 decreased 21%.

Why would unfiltered coffee be more dangerous than filtered? A leading suspect is a group of substances called diterpenes, found widely in nature--and in coffee beans. Diterpenes are known to raise homocysteine levels, and the paper filters used in coffee machines are usually fine enough to catch them. Some coffee roasters prepare their beans with processes that remove some of the offending diterpenes. Check with your favorite brewer for details.

The good news for coffee lovers: increased levels of homocysteine aren't necessarily permanent. Removing the offending agent--in this case, unfiltered coffee--will help bring the levels back to normal, as will increasing your intake of the B vitamins B-6 and folic acid. Vitamin supplements, green leafy vegetables and citrus fruits are good sources of folate.
Recommended Supplements to help restore health and to take if you want to continue to drink coffee..

Vitamin B Complex - The need for handling homocysteine is to get an absorbable B vitamin (B6, B12, and Folate). These vitamins change the homocysteine to Cysteine which the body uses to make Glutathione, the body's master anti-oxidant.You also need to take extra Calcium and Magnesium.

Coffee Aids Weight loss

A hot cup of coffee is how many people like to start the day. Some people swear by it and wouldn't think of beginning their day without a fresh cup. Others drink it by the pot. But is it safe? And will it help or hinder your weight loss efforts?

Research has been back and forth on whether a few cups of coffee a day is a healthy habit or not. The latest research shows that it is not only safe to consume several cups of coffee per day, but it can actually help you lose weight.

How Drinking Coffee Helps:•Coffee reduces the risk of type 2 Diabetes.
•Coffee gives you more energy for a tougher workout that lasts longer, making it possible to burn more calories.
•Coffee does not contribute to heart disease as we previously thought.
•Caffeine speeds up your metabolism making it easier for us to burn more calories --- even while at rest.
What To Watch Out For:
•Avoid fancy drinks from places like Starbucks that are loaded with hidden ingredients and additional calories. Frappacinnos and Mocha Lattes are not going to help you lose weight.
•Don't add cream and sugar to your coffee. These only add extra calories and make you crave more sweets.
•Don't give into the donuts, muffins and other similar goodies when you stop to grab a cup of coffee. A donut can add another 200-300 calories (and who can eat just one?) and a muffin can range from 450-700 calories depending on the size and type.
•Don't try to cut out coffee and reduce calories all at once. Gradually reduce your intake to phase it out if that is your goal.
Overall, coffee has been given a bad reputation and as long as you don't fill it or pair it with sweets it is a healthy way to start your day and kick start your weight loss.

Is filter coffee better for you than instant coffee?

Blending, roasting and brewing all contribute to coffee’s complex chemical composition. For example, brewing creates hundreds of different compounds. Each one weighs less than 0.3 per cent of the dry weight of the coffee but may still contribute significantly to coffee’s effects, and may act in tandem to enhance the bean’s health benefits. Most instant coffee is prepared by freeze drying and as a result many of these compounds will be retained. “My sense is that there is no appreciable difference between instant and brewed coffee if they are in similar concentration,” says Martin. However, decaffeinated instant coffee has between 30-50 per cent fewer compounds than filtered or caffeinated instant coffee.

Most studies which focus on the effects of caffeine in coffee give volunteers instant decaffeinated coffee and then add caffeine to create a standard dose. This could, of course, alter the results of psychological tests, as Hindmarch point outs: ”Instant coffee doesn’t have the same taste as brewed coffee and the taste can add a lot to the psychological effect. Drinking instant coffee is not like sitting down and having a latte. “ He adds that some of coffee’s properties can be attributed to psychology. “We wouldn’t say, ‘Let’s go to the bar and have a caffeine pill,’” he says, concluding that coffee’s taste, and it’s preparation all contribute to how we react to our daily brew.

Some Great Reasons To Drink Coffee

Antioxidant Boost: Caffeinated and decaffeinated coffees contain an antioxidant called trigonelline. Antioxidants are chemical compounds that fight free radicals, which, if allowed to grow, will attack our body and cause disease, most commonly cancer. Chemical analysis shows that freshly brewed coffee contains the same amount of antioxidants as three oranges.

Prevent Cavities: While coffee can stain your teeth, a cup of java made from roasted beans has antibacterial activities against certain microorganisms, including Streptococcus mutans, a major cause of dental caries.
Dietary Fiber: Brewed coffee contains a significantly higher amount of soluble dietary fiber than other common beverages.

Energy Boost: Caffeine does not have specific nutritional value, but it does demonstrate medicinal properties. It is particularly helpful in keeping the mind alert and the body action-ready. In fact, the International Olympic Committee calls caffeine a powerful “ergogenic agent,” meaning it promotes the ability of muscles to work.

Headache Buster: While people have complained of caffeine-withdrawal headaches, other people swear by caffeine to eliminate migraine headaches. Cafergot, a mixture of ergotamine tartrate and caffeine, is used to treat or prevent vascular headaches such as migraine and cluster headaches. Side effects, however, may be serious for some.

Weight Loss: Harvard School of Public Health in Boston doesn’t say you’ll lose weight by drinking coffee, but you will gain weight if you continue to spike that coffee with cream, whipped cream, chocolate and more additives. Black coffee contains caffeine, which is an appetite suppressant, it may stimulate thermogensis (body generating heat from food digestion) and it is a diuretic — but diet and exercise are better weight-loss tools.

Pain Killer: Two cups of brewed coffee may reduce post-exercise muscle pain by up to forty-eight percent.
Reduce Suicide Risk: A ten-year study of 86,000 female nurses showed a strong link between coffee intake and lower suicide risk.
Increases Sexual Drive (Rats): Scientists from Southwestern University found caffeine increased the female libido in experiments on rats. Further research is needed before anyone knows whether it works as a sexual stimulant on humans.
Disease Reduction

Alzheimer’s Disease: A case-control study was used with 54 patients with probable AD fulfilling the National Institute of Neurologic and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the AD and Related Disorders Association criteria, and caffeine intake was associated with a significantly lower risk for AD (independently of other possible confounding variables).

Bladder Cancer (Smokers): A study published in the January 2001 issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community suggested that non-coffee drinking smokers were seven times more likely to develop bladder cancer as non-smokers. Coffee-drinking smokers were only three times more at risk.

Cirrhosis of the Liver (Alcoholic Drinkers): A study published in 2008 showed — out of 125,000 coffee drinkers — that one cup of coffee per day cut the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver by twenty percent. Four cups per day reduced the risk by eighty percent.

Colon Cancer:Reduces risk of colon cancer.

Diabetes: In a report that combined statistical data from many studies, researchers found that people who drank four to six cups of coffee a day had a 28 percent reduced risk compared with people who drank two or fewer. Those who drank more than six had a 35 percent risk reduction.

Gallstones: Men who drink at least 2 cups of coffee a day may reduce their risk of developing gallstones by 40 percent, and women showed a twenty-five percent lower risk of gallstone development.

Gout (Men): Men who drink four or more cups of coffee per day reduce their chance of developing gout by 59 percent.

Heart Disease (women): Out of 27,312 postmenopausal women who took part in an Iowa Women’s Health study, the women who reported drinking one to three daily cups of coffee at the study’s start were 24 percent less likely to die of heart disease during the study, compared with those who didn’t drink coffee.

Ovarian Cancer: A study found that caffeine may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in women by a fifth. The risk is even less for women who do not take the Pill or do not use hormone replacement therapy.

Parkinson’s Disease: At least six studies indicate that people who drink coffee on a regular basis are up to 80 percent less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.
Stroke: In an observational study, scientists at UCLA discovered that of people who reported drinking one to two cups of coffee per day, five percent reported a history of stroke, compared to three and one-half percent of people who reported drinking three to five daily cups of coffee and about three percent of people who said they drink six or more cups of coffee per day.

Environment
Biofuel Source: Coffee grounds — currently wasted or used as garden compost (see below) — could become a cheap and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel and fuel pellets, says a study from SciDev.Net, a member of the Guardian Environment Network. Scientists at the US-based University of Nevada, Reno, used an inexpensive process to extract oil from the leftovers of making espressos, cappuccinos and other coffee preparations from a multinational coffeehouse chain. This oil was then converted into biodiesel, which could be used to fuel cars and trucks.
Cleaning Grounds: Coffee grounds are abrasive and acidic, providing them with an edge in cleaning pots, pans and stainless steel sinks. Plus, rinsing coffee grounds down the drain can help eliminate drain odors.

Great for Mushrooms: Mushroom expert Paul Stamets discovered that oyster mushrooms grow great in coffee grounds. Once you’re through with the coffee grounds.

Natural Fertilizer: When coffee grounds to into the landfill, they create methane, a greenhouse gas. But, if you take those grounds and mix them with a little soil, you can produce a healthy fertilizer and/or compost for your home garden that worms love. And, a healthy garden loves worms.

Repel Slugs: Don’t use chemicals, which can harm other wildlife and humans, to eliminate slugs in your garden. Instead, use coffee grounds sprinkled around on the ground. Caffeine has been found to be more effective than the chemical metaldehyde in killing slugs.

Coffee And Bowl Cancer

It is estimated that about 2 out of 3 bowel cancers may be preventable by changes in diet and lifestyle, but no one dietary component can eliminate the risk of developing bowel cancer.

Well conducted studies have suggested that coffee drinking is related to a lower risk of bowel cancer. According to one study in Canada the risk reduced as coffee drinking rose to 5 cups a day and this was especially evident in men. (Woolcott et al. 2002) Another group of studies showed a 28% reduction in risk of developing colorectal cancer for those drinking four or more cups of coffee daily compared to those drinking less than one cup. This lower risk of colorectal cancer, among moderate and regular coffee drinkers, was observed consistently in over a dozen studies undertaken in a variety of settings in Asia, Northern and Southern Europe, and North America.

Caffeine For Muscle Building!

The benefits of caffeine in helping you build muscle mass just keeps piling up. Caffeine is definitely one of the cheapest substances around, yet has so many upsides to it that it’s incredible.

Well, now even more research has proven that not only can taking caffeine before a weight training workout session help blunt the pain associated with intense training, but also reduce the soreness that forms afterwards in the muscle. In addition, it can even make the muscle itself stronger.

Hey, combining being able to use more weight for more reps, for longer periods will definitely push muscle building in your favor!

Here are some of the studies:

*Researchers from the University of Nebraska (Lincoln) reported that weight-trained men who drank coffee (or a caffeine pill) 1 hour before working out raised the number of repetitions they could complete on the bench press.

*In another study, they also reported that taking caffeine before a workout session allowed them to use 5 more pounds than normal on the same exercise (the bench press).

*The University of Georgia (Athens), a 2007 University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in New Orleans, and the University of Connecticut (Storrs) at the 2007 ACSM Meeting all found that caffeine about 1 hour before working out not only helped reduce
the pain from the intense weight lifting bouts, but also either increased strength and / or performance than when not taking the caffeine pill / coffee.

*The University of Georgia reported that caffeine helped lower delayed-onset muscle soreness after a leg workout that used negative training (and we all know how a lot of us walk around limping for days because of soreness in our legs after doing a ton of lunges).

The key in all of this is to drink either a caffeine pill, like Vivarin or No Doze, or better yet, drink a strong cup of coffee, that is the equivalent of 200-400 mgs of caffeine 30 - 60 minutes before that muscle building workout session.

Recover From Xtreme Exercise

New research has shown that adding a few cups of coffee to the carbohydrates eaten by athletes following exercise boosts muscle recovery by up to 60 per cent – apparently solving a problem that has foxed sports physiologists until now. The study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology in July, has found a solution to a problem that has resulted in increasingly complex dietary schemes designed to help athletes recover faster.

"If you give an athlete more petrol in the tank, they will go further. What we've done is to give them 50-60 per cent more petrol," said Professor John Hawley, head of the exercise metabolism group at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Victoria, Australia. "It has been incredibly hard for exercise physiologists to help athletes in this way, and it's a dilemma that has occupied researchers for decades. We asked athletes to ingest caffeine, which has no nutritional benefit, and the results were astounding."

In the study, athletes cycled to exhaustion before eating a carbohydrate sports drink, bar or gel with a high caffeine dose – the equivalent of five or six cups of strong coffee – immediately after the exercise, and then two hours later. "We found that the amount of carbohydrate that could be stored by the muscles when ingested along with caffeine was about 60 per cent higher than with carbohydrates alone. If you've got 60 per cent more fuel there for your next day's run, cycle ride or football game, there is no question that you would be able to go further or faster.
"The practical outcome of that is that an athlete training or competing the next day will have a better training session or race," Dr Hawley predicted. "Caffeine has a wonderful effect on both short-term sprint performance and on endurance. It is a remarkable drug that affects both ends of the spectrum."