Would you swap your coffee for water?

24^th May 2014

If your plan A doesn’t work there are 25 more letters!

Quick one this morning because I’ve got to leave the house at half seven, which is not the norm on a Saturday as you can imagine… I’m covering a meeting for a leader so she can have a weekend off, so I get to meet lots of different members, I always enjoy this.  Although I won’t be doing much for the rest of the day as I’m tired, yep I crashed and burned yesterday after doing so many hours at work over the last two weeks, yesterday I just sat on my backside chilling all afternoon with no energy at all.  We watched a movie called “The Heat” which was very funny and one on Sky demand with Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx about the White House that was good too, and X-Men (the first one) and I now want to watch the rest of them and that was my afternoon.  I did also use the time to look through some cookbooks to start getting ideas for what I’d like to add to my menu plan for next week and I have to say there’s so many different things to chose from, that I’m not going to have to pick a few every week because I want to try them all.  I’ll carry on with that this afternoon, not decided whether to do my shopping online again, I might do.

I’ve just caught up with my facebook notifications and yesterday I posted an advert from a Weight Watcher magazine which was suggesting you drink nothing but water for two weeks to raise money for the RNLI, great job they do, (http://www.h2only.org.uk/) I was amazed by how many people said they couldn’t give up their coffee/diet coke, not their booze but their caffeine.  So this got me curious and I’ve just done a bit of googling to the effects this stuff has on our bodies because I have been drinking the odd can of diet coke and a cup or two of coffee since cutting out the booze… Here are my findings…..

Caffeine is currently the world's most commonly used drug! Wow yeah I found that written on a website or two.

It’s a stimulant drug, as is cocaine and meth! (I found that too)

The side effects can range from unpleasant to severe, it speeds up the heart rate, research shows that 360milligrams (the equivalent of about three and a half cups of brewed coffee) is the amount where the heart rate is significantly affects. 

For most people drinking it in moderation it isn’t necessarily harmful but if you’re prone to anxiety, this may increase the likelihood of panic reactions, because caffeine increases anxiety as well! 

There was more but it gone a bit deep and talked about heart attacks.

Caffeine also raises blood pressure, affects our bone density and also sleep, according to one site, if you drink a big cup of coffee with 200mg of caffeine at 4pm, by 10pm you’ll still have about 100mg in your body.  By 4am you still have 50mg floating around in your system, and even though you may be able to sleep you may not be able to obtain the restful benefits of deep sleep.  The more coffee I’m guessing the worse that is.

So what else does it stimulate?  We know the brain – increasing alertness, causing the difficulty with sleeping, relieving fatigue.  It also stimulates respiration, the kidneys – hence it’s diuretic effects.  That’s enough to be going on with!

The American Heart Association says moderate coffee drinking one or two cups a day doesn’t seem to be harmful for most people.   As always it’s about balance moderation is the key!

I drink so much tea, now I’ve swapped some of that for coffee and the occasion can of diet coke, it’s made me think that’s for sure and I’m sitting drinking a pint of water this morning, I might have another one.  Here’s a chart I found for you to work out how much you’re consuming.

Have a great day BeYOUtiful. x