Are you sure pregnant women can't drink coffee? Is decaf that harmful? What is the function of decaf coffee?

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Coffee is the most popular drink in the world, and its trade volume is second only to crude oil. In recent years, coffee has been proved to have health effects, and it has been found that it has a lot of phytochemicals, which can be identified more than 300 kinds, such as caffeine, chlorogenic acid and other substances that are beneficial to the human body. Past studies have found that coffee drinkers have a lower risk of diabetes, hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular disease, and can even reduce the risk of depression.

However, for the special group of pregnant women, is it really good to drink decaf?

Caffeine increases the risk of miscarriage

It is probably no longer news that drinking coffee increases the risk of miscarriage. As early as 1993, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) suggested that caffeine intake was associated with miscarriage. In this study, the highest caffeine intake (caffeine greater than 321mg per day) was 2.62 times more likely to win (odd ratio) than those with the lowest (less than 48mg per day). Another study found that heavy caffeine drinkers (more than 400 milligrams a day) increased the risk of sudden fetal death (linked).

The 2015 Integrated Analysis study (meta-analysis), which consolidated the results of 26 studies, found that consuming 150mg of caffeine a day increased the risk of miscarriage by 19 per cent, while drinking more than two cups of coffee a day increased the risk by 8 per cent. A more recent study, published this year by a collaboration between Harvard University and the National University of Singapore, found that every 100 mg of caffeine intake increased the risk of miscarriage by 7%.

These data show that mothers should be very careful when consuming caffeinated foods so as not to cause miscarriage.

Caffeine may affect fetal brain

Because caffeine binds to brain receptors and affects brain physiology, and caffeine can pass through the placenta from the mother to the fetus, developing fetuses in the brain are bound to be affected. However, it is difficult to study the health of pregnant women and fetuses. After all, no mother is willing to take herself as an experimental subject, so most of the studies on this kind of research are epidemiological observations and animal behavior experiments.

Past studies have indeed found that pregnant mothers eat caffeine and their offspring are more likely to exhibit anxiety-like-like behavior (link). In addition, some scholars believe that mothers' exposure to a large amount of caffeine during the third trimester of pregnancy may be related to a child's low IQ during childhood development.

Affect fetal metabolism and three high probability

Many studies have pointed out that caffeine may be one of the inducers of fetal growth retardation in the womb, and Harvard University study has shown that caffeine intake by mothers is associated with low birth weight. In addition, a study published in the Journal of the Public Library of Science (PLoS ONE) found that caffeine intake during pregnancy increases the risk of metabolism-related diseases in their offspring as they grow up.

This may be due to the fact that the caffeine consumed by the mother enters the fetus's brain, affecting the regulation of stress hormones (corticosterone), making it difficult for the fetus to control blood sugar after birth and growth. In addition, some animal studies have found that caffeine affects the regulation of fetal blood pressure and increases the risk of hypertension in offspring, so it is often suggested in the literature that mothers should avoid caffeine intake so as not to cause fetal injury.

Drinking coffee will not cause fetal deformities.

Drinking coffee can cause fetal deformities? Many mothers will worry about this, but there is no conclusive evidence of a link between the two. Some studies have suggested that excessive caffeine intake during pregnancy can lead to neural tube defects and further spina bifida (connections), but other studies suggest that there is no significant correlation between the two. In fact, although caffeine can cause fetal health problems, there seems to be no correlation between caffeine and fetal malformations.

Although caffeine or coffee does not cause fetal deformities, caffeine does cause problems such as growth retardation and metabolic abnormalities. Some literature or official units advise pregnant mothers to touch less than 200 milligrams of caffeine a day, equivalent to two cups of American coffee.

However, some scholars suggest that caffeine should be avoided as far as possible. Therefore, in my personal opinion, the fetus is healthy only once, so in this nine months of pregnancy, try to avoid caffeine intake, avoid any adverse effects of the fetus! So for the mother in the original news, for the sake of the baby's health, you'd better drink less.