Coffee and becoming overweight

[spring]

I have been reading a blog about the mental effects of coffee, how it makes you think not clearly, and makes you feel like you have to do a hundred things at once in record time, and I realized that coffee might be the thing that is sabotaging my weight loss.

I know Wai says it's OK to have coffee of a morning (and count it as munch food) but in my case, it is all too easy to get addicted to it, and end up consuming at least three cups of caffeine a day.

And that is how I feel after drinking it, as described in the blog, it gives me the ability to concentrate on routine tasks but when it comes to thinking deeply or creatively, it is very bad for that. The adrenaline rush I get with coffee makes it hard to think properly, to order my priorities - because everything has to be done urgently. And as a consequence of this crazy thinking, hardly anything gets done.

And the effect on my body is worse. The adrenaline and other hormones released by caffeine in my system blunts my senses somewhat so that I no longer know when I am really hungry or not.

I must be very susceptible to the effect of caffeine, maybe more than most - it does give me an edge and I have trouble waking in the mornings and so I have become 'dependent' on coffee to make me feel more awake, but in terms of how it sabotages my weight-losing efforts, I had better be wary of it, as much as I am wary of MSG, betacarbolines or other addictive chemicals/substances in food.

[Oscar]

Aside from the mental effects of the caffeine:

Coffee is made from coffee BEANS, and beans are always high in protein.

Heated protein => HCA's => appetite enhancers

[johndela1]

This guys believes coffee causes weight gain. He mentions cortisol.

http://www.lightconnectiononline.com/Ar ... ticle8.htm

[Tulip]

"The highest amounts of norharman and harman were found in brewed coffee (29-207 microg l(-1))" From http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... med_docsum

Coffee contains a lot of beta-carbolines.
I experienced the same effects, Spring. I've taken up and given up coffee drinking many times, but on this diet the effects were made clear. I started to only brew 5 beans. Any more and I would first feel sedated then very nervous the rest of the day. After a few days of having this every morning I started to feel really spaced out, numb and slow. I think while I built tolerance to the caffeine, the beta-carbolines built up in my system. As for hunger, I sometimes enojoyed food more than usual and other times felt distracted from food. Judging by all this, it probably should interfere with weight loss.

So now if I want to use caffeine I drink soda. I can only drink up to 12mg caffeine, though. This works out better for me but I still have trouble waking up if I use it.

[spring]

This is a site of a herbal coffee maker, Teeccino, it has some interesting information about weight loss and caffeine, though it doesn't mention the HCAs.

Weight Loss

A number of diets such as The Fat Flush Plan by Ann Louise Gittleman, The Rosedale Diet by Ron Rosedale, M.D., and The Perricone Prescription by Nicholas Perricone, M.D. advise their followers to quit caffeine to help their weight loss process. There are documented scientific reasons that support the premise that caffeine interferes with weight loss programs. To read a professional paper on the effects of coffee and caffeine on weight loss, click here. A quick summary of the paper’s main points follows:

* Caffeine elevates stress hormones. People tend to eat when feeling stressed and this thwarts their diet goals.
* Caffeine triggers hypoglycemia and increases appetite. Weight loss diets are designed to achieve stable blood sugar without insulin spikes. Caffeine raises blood sugar, which can result in subsequent low blood sugar that drives people to eat high fat, refined carbohydrate foods to get a quick energy boost.
* Caffeine aggravates Insulin Resistance Syndrome. Obesity, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and cellular insensitivity to insulin are part of a syndrome that can lead to the development of Type 2 diabetes. Caffeine contributes to insulin resistance and impairs glucose tolerance. 41 million Americans are considered to be pre-diabetic and are advised to adapt healthy lifestyle and dietary habits to avoid progressing to type 2 diabetes.

Also about aging and stress:

Aging & Stress

Many people’s tolerance for caffeine changes as they turn 40 or 50. The adrenal glands’ production of DHEA, the hormone responsible for anabolic metabolism or rebuild and repair activity as well as the production of sex hormones, declines sharply after the age of 40. The production of cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases inversely to the decline of DHEA. Elevated levels of cortisol accelerate aging symptoms including skin wrinkling, loss of muscle and increased fat gain, and feelings of anxiety and stress. People who want to slow the aging process, boost their DHEA production, and decrease their stress are advised to eliminate caffeine from their diet. To read professional papers with citations on the effects of coffee and caffeine on aging and stress...coming soon in January 2005.

This page has a scientifically researched article about weight and caffeine and although you can't always trust scientific papers that are commercially sponsored, this one is well-supported with references and looks reasonably okay - I have heard caffeine boosts one's stress hormones before so not that much new in the article.

The Effect of Caffeine on Weight Loss
© Teeccino 2004
Reviewed by Meri Rafetto, RD, Theresa Grumet, RD, and Gerri French, RD, MS, CDE.

Weight loss is an obsession for many Americans. The prevalence of adults who are overweight is at an all-time high with the percentage currently hovering at 65 percent, of whom 30.5 percent are considered obese. Rates of weight gain and obesity are dangerously increasing in children as well. Carrying excess weight not only hastens early mortality, but being overweight is associated with many chronic diseases, including: diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and increased incidence of cancer.1 Research has found that caffeine and coffee negatively affects many of these health conditions that are prevalent in overweight people. Additionaly, both caffeine and coffee contribute to increased appetite that thwarts the efforts of people on diets to stick to their regime.

Americans spend more than $33 billion annually on weight loss products and services.2 ....................