7 Unbelievable Times You Were Lied To About Coffee

Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world for its energizing benefits. But yet, there are so many misconceptions about coffee. I want to delve into the times we were lied to about coffee… and why.

Turns out there’s so much I didn’t know about coffee. Like how it actually has health benefits, and it doesn’t stunt your kid’s growth??

Psst! This blog post contains affiliate links in it which sends me a bit of extra money if you use them… at no extra cost to you!

My interest about coffee sparked after listening to the podcast from Part-Time Genius, “Can Coffee Make you Live Longer”. (You should also check out their podcast, they have a lot of great episodes!).

I also learned some coffee fun facts. Like did you know that this magical bean comes from a flower? And like chocolate, it used to be chewed instead of brewed? But the best one of all, we have goats to thank for finding this magical flower.

Top 7 Times You Were Lied To About Coffee

P.S. Love coffee as much as I do? You might be interested in my coffee tasting journal and guide perfect for elevating your palette and coffee tasting experience!

1. Coffee Is Bad For You

Coffee is far from being bad for you – it’s actually the opposite. Drinking coffee can actually lead to certain health benefits…

It’s proven that coffee can lead to a lower risk of Cancer, Type 2 Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and heart, liver, and kidney disease. In fact, it’s actually recommended you drink about 3-5 cups/ day to get the full health benefits.

So where did the lie that coffee was bad for us come from? The coffee itself isn’t bad for us… it’s the sugar, milk, and cream that we add. They’re not bad if you only have it once a day. But when you start having 3 or 5 cups of coffee, each with 2 sugars and 2 creams, it can add up pretty quickly.

Find out more about the benefits of coffee.

2. Coffee Will Stunt Your Kids Growth

This is my favourite coffee lies of all and it was actually all a part of a marketing scheme back in the 1950s by Postum.

Postum wanted to promote its coffee substitute. So, in order to do that, they advertised that coffee was bad for your children. They said: “It robs children of their rosy cheek and sparkling eyes. It lowers their vitality, lessens their resistance to disease, and hampers proper development and growth”.

So can your kids start drinking 5 cups a day like you? No. It’s true that coffee won’t do anything to their development.

But they are still developing and because of that, weigh less and have a slower metabolism. Because of that, their bodies can’t process the caffeine as fast as the average adult. Which can result in harmful effect (like speeding up their heart rate which disrupts their blood flow).

A good rule is to cap their caffeine consumption to 1 cup of coffee a day. Read this article to find out more about the Postum scam.

3. Decaf Doesn’t Contain Caffeine

You should think twice before having that decaf right before bed. Decaf still has caffeine!

Albeit, it’s a very small amount, but it can still impact you if you’re easily affected by caffeine.

Decaf can have up to 7 mg of caffeine (a normal cup is 70 – 140 mg). But this always depends on the roast and even the brew method.

4. Dark Roast Is Stronger – The Truth About Coffee

The new trend these days is dark roast coffee. Every major coffee shop is promoting its own dark roast coffee blend. The mentality around it seems to be, the darker the roast the manlier or the more caffeine you’re getting.

Most of the time, when you order a dark roast, they burn the beans removing some of the caffeine in the process. So it’s actually weaker than most light and medium roast coffees (it’s only a small difference). But because they’re burnt, you also lose some of the more subtle notes of the coffee bean. It’ll just taste more bitter. Yum!

As I mentioned, the caffeine difference between light and dark roast is negligible, UNLESS you’re measuring your coffee by volume. Dark roast beans tend to be larger than lighter roasted beans as they’ve puffed out more. So if you want the same amount of caffeine, it’s important to measure by weight when making your daily cup of coffee!

5. Coffee Dehydrates You – Coffee Facts

I’ve even been going around spreading this coffee lie, even though I’d never done any proper research on it.

This coffee lie started because caffeine is a diuretic (something that makes you pee). Because of that, people assumed your body was losing water when you drank coffee.

Turns out your body knows how to adjust to the caffeine intake. So you don’t need to drink more water. The truth about coffee is that it actually hydrates you because there’s water in the coffee.

6. Coffee Cures Your Hangover

I’m pretty sure we were lied to about coffee here by the film industry. Movies love promoting making coffee as a hangover cure… there’s some truth about coffee that it will probably help your hangover but not for the reasons that everyone thinks. It’s not the caffeine that’ll help. Sure, it’ll wake you up, so you’ll feel more alert.

But, it’s most likely the water from the coffee that’s helping you. When you’re hungover you’re dehydrated from the alcohol, so all you have to do is drink water. And because now we know that coffee hydrates you you’re likely to feel better when drinking it.

7. Pregnant Women Can’t Drink Coffee

Pregnant women were definitely lied to about coffee. You should cut down on your coffee when you’re pregnant, but you don’t have to cut it out completely as you might have originally thought.

It’s kind of like teens. You want to limit your daily caffeine intake to 1 cup a day or switch it to tea instead (which have their own set of health benefits).

Bonus Coffee Fun Facts

Americans might drink the biggest cups of coffee, but they don’t even come close to drinking the most coffee per capita. They’re not even in the top 20 countries. This reputation might be due to the large cup sizes (which are about to become even bigger).

The United States come in at a whopping number 25!!! The top coffee drinkers are actually the Nordic Countries; Finland, Norway and Iceland. e

FYI Canada is in 10th place. It’s also the only non-European country in the top 10. It’s rumoured to be due to the long cold winters.

But I think what surprised me the most is that Italy was only in 13th place.

Related Posts – Lied To About Coffee

• 5 Healthy Coffee Alternatives With Caffeine To Keep You Going All Day Long
• How To Perfectly Roast Coffee Beans At Home
• 5 Health Benefits Of Tea To Make You Live Longer
• 3 Instant At Home Iced Coffee Recipes You Need To Try!
• How To Cold Brew Coffee At Home (In A French Press)

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