Safe daily intake of coffee

Taiwan's coffee population has grown rapidly in recent years, and many women planning to get pregnant are also coffee lovers, but does coffee have any effect on pregnancy or fetal health? It's something every mother-to-be wants to know.

Caffeine is a natural ingredient found in the leaves, seeds or flesh of more than 60 plants, such as coffee beans, cocoa beans, cola beans and tea, while the most common food sources are coffee, tea, chocolate and cool drinks (such as cola, tea-containing drinks). Caffeine has a mild central nervous stimulation and can reduce fatigue, enhance memory, reasoning and intellectual flexibility. As long as a small amount of 32 milligrams (about 1 cup of cola) can improve auditory and visual reaction time, but everyone's sensitivity to caffeine varies greatly, and some people think that increasing the amount of flexible caffeine may make some people feel uncomfortable, and the elderly may be more sensitive to the effects of caffeine.

Will there be less calcium in drinking coffee?

Most people often ask whether drinking coffee will have osteoporosis. This may be related to an early study in the United States. Women who drank an average of two cups of coffee a day had lower bone mineral density after menopause than those who did not drink coffee, the report said. However, according to a recent study in the United States, when factors such as smoking, drinking, weight and hormone treatment were excluded, it was found that long-term caffeine intake in postmenopausal women was not associated with bone loss.

As for the absorption and metabolism of calcium, the amount of caffeine contained in 1 cup of brewed coffee can reduce the absorption of 4 mg of calcium, which can be easily made up by 1 to 2 teaspoons of milk. Therefore, coffee drinkers have lower bone mineral density, which may be related to their lower calcium intake in their daily diet.

In the elderly with high blood pressure, caffeine intake causes a slight increase in blood pressure, but it usually does not last for more than a few hours, and this temporary slight increase in blood pressure is lower than that caused by normal daily activities (such as climbing stairs, etc.).

Early pregnancy may increase spontaneous abortion

Women planning to become pregnant often question whether they should quit coffee. Research results show that even if caffeine intake is more than 500 mg a day, it does not delay pregnancy, and there is no evidence that caffeine intake in pregnant women is related to abnormal fetuses, premature delivery and low birth weight.

Nevertheless, the nutrition room of Yan Oi Hospital advises pregnant women to exercise moderate abstinence, as the intake of large amounts of caffeine in the first trimester of pregnancy may slightly increase the risk of spontaneous miscarriage, and caffeine metabolism is slow after the second trimester of pregnancy.

According to the survey and analysis of American scholars, the average daily caffeine intake of American adults is about 2 mg / kg body weight (about 140 mg / day for people weighing 70 kg), 80% of which comes from coffee; children aged 5-18 eat about 38 mg a day, while the main sources of caffeine for children are cool drinks (such as cola, tea drinks).

Although children are smaller than adults, they are less sensitive to caffeine. Most children will not have any adverse effects when consuming a small amount of caffeine, and children's metabolism and elimination of caffeine are much faster than adults. Even if there is, the time is also very short.

In any case, it is suggested that parents should still pay attention to their children's intake of caffeinated foods and beverages, lest children replace healthy food choices and increase empty calorie intake, resulting in obesity and nutritional imbalance.

Pregnant women who drink a lot of coffee will stillbirth.

The risk of stillbirth is tripled if pregnant women drink more than eight cups of coffee a day, Danish scientists announced on Friday. Kirsten Wisborg, from Aarhus University in Denmark, told Reuters: "We found that the risk of stillbirth increases with the number of cups of coffee that pregnant women drink every day. Pregnant women who drank four to seven cups of coffee a day had an 80% higher risk of stillbirth than women who never drank coffee. Women who drink more than eight cups of coffee a day have a more than three-fold increased risk of stillbirth. "

The results of the researchers' studies on the effects of coffee drinking on pregnant women vary. Some scientists have found that coffee does have an effect on the fetus, but other studies do not believe that such an effect exists.