Maybe Coffee Isn’t All That Bad
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I love coffee. Every morning begins with a cup. Whenever I head off to a meeting or have a long drive ahead of me I’ll stop by Starbucks or another local shop and load up on some coffee. Yes indeed, I am a fan of coffee.
When I got pregnant I stopped drinking coffee with caffeine altogether. I indulged in decaf coffee once in a while, and even though I missed the little caffeine buzz I figured I was doing the right thing because of all the alarmist articles I had read that claimed caffeine could cause low birth weight and premature birth. I wasn’t going to take that risk, even though I really missed coffee.
Now some researchers are changing their mind. According to a new study by Danish researchers, consumption of caffeinated coffee might not be as dangerous as was once thought. Now some experts are saying that moderate coffee consumption doesn’t heighten the risk of low birth weight and premature birth at all, although they aren’t still so sure about the other risks that may be involved. It sounds like lack of risk may not include pregnant women who also smoke.
I don’t think this study really changes how I view coffee and pregnancy. I think if I were to get pregnant tomorrow (no, thank you) I would still nix the coffee. After all, caffeine is a stimulant, right? I don’t want to get my unborn baby hooked on a stimulant before even being born.
brit says...
I’m sick of alarmist articles too.
Can’t resarchers focus on things that are more important that coffee? if it does have a risk, it’s a tiny one, and there’s so many issues more important to prenatal and infant health that how many cups of coffee pregnant moms drink.
Like cleaning chemicals, smoking, alcohol, pollutants, synthetic hormones, and on and on and on. Overindulging in coffee is not a good thing, but moms shouldn’t be cutting back on caffeine at the expense of not reducing more risky behaviour.
grr!
Brit
tedl says...
Brit has nailed it. Our nation is likely killing itself over partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup, but that kind of research is just too “unglamorous”. And how easy is it to get the public riled up over polysyllabic stuff they can barely pronounce — even if it is flooding all our diets in the past 20 years?
Coffee — which has almost a millennium of epidemiological evidence indicating safe consumption by humans in moderation — is just one of those things that many people can relate to; therefore it gets a disproportionate amount of focus and attention.
Dawn says...
Brit, Ted, and Tamsen,
I couldn’t agree more! For me, after my first trimester when morning sickness made coffee consumption unappealing, I decided my caffeine headaches and lethargy were worse than a few cups a day. I could either have lived on Tylenol for a week or two straight, until the headaches subsided, or drank my coffee. I’ll take the natural ingredients in coffee over pharmaceuticals, thank you.
I’m a bit relieved by this study, although I’m not too excited over it. Next week, it will be bad for us again. Besides, caffeine is my *only* bad habit.
Ted, as far as high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils not being picked on in the media, there’s an easy answer: they have better lobbyists.
Seriously… most coffee is grown overseas and is not a big industry for U.S. farmers. Corn is one of our heartland’s main crops… not to mention all the hundreds (thousands?) of U.S. manufacturers who use these poisonous ingredients in most of their food products. (And yes, I’m saying food products because these things are not really “food!”)
Besides, giving up coffee is relatively easy compared to changing your entire eating and shopping habits to avoid anything these ingredients along with anything you can’t pronounce. (I know, as I’ve been trying over the past few months.)
Sadly, all you have to do is follow the money trail once again…
Dawns last blog post..90 Minutes in the Morning