The Impact of Our Morning Coffee Fix on Our Bodies

How did you start your morning? Up and awake before the birdsong, a quick 5km run followed by yoga and a green smoothie? Before being ready and raring to go at your desk by 8am, kids clean, fed and already at school?

Or, perhaps instead, you pressed snooze at least twice, rolled out of bed feeling groggy, felt guilty for not exercising and you had your second super strong coffee by 9am.

As much as many of us would love to be super efficient as soon as we wake up, the simple fact is, sometimes, we’re just not. Often especially not until we’ve had a cup of expertly dripped, proper coffee.

But what is this life choice, to consume caffeine almost mindlessly, routinely everyday doing to our bodies?

In this Article

Our Insatiable Appetite for Coffee
The Impact of Drinking Coffee on Our Health and Wellbeing
The Impact of Coffee on our Skin
The Consequences of a Lifetime of Coffee Consumption
Should I Give Up Coffee?

Our Insatiable Appetite for Coffee

UK adults collectively spend £4bn (yes, that’s four billion pounds) on coffee shop coffees every year. Which is an awful lot, especially considering that we’re famously known as a nation of tea drinkers.

For lots of reasons, many of us are drinking more coffee than we normally would. The Covid pandemic certainly took its toll, and still is as we navigate our way through a post-pandemic world. Many of us are still working from home, and although that has benefits, it’s more difficult to set boundaries between work and home.

Plus, we can buy coffee from seemingly anywhere these days, including the petrol garage, McDonalds and the supermarket. Life has become more competitive and busy, we’re juggling more and we’re all pretty tired, most of the time.

Coffee is an important drink in many societies, and on many occasions. But it’s also a drug. Even if we only drink one coffee a day on a regular basis, if we stop, we'll experience caffeine withdrawal headaches. This is a sign that our body is getting rid of toxins.

So aside from keeping us awake and more alert, what’s the impact of drinking coffee on our body? More specifically, on our skin? (We are a skin care brand after all.)

The Impact of Drinking Coffee on Our Health and Wellbeing

Coffee contains caffeine, quite obviously, and also fairly obviously, caffeine is a stimulant. It makes us feel energised, but also, stimulants such as caffeine stimulate the production of stress hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline, from the adrenal glands.

A Surge in Stress Hormones

If you’ve ever had caffeine jitters from too much coffee, then this is down to a surge of stress hormones around your body, and it’s not a nice feeling.

Stress hormones are normally produced by the body in times of danger, when we need to flick our fight or flight switch to get us to safety. (Be that ancestorially as we escape from a hungry sabre toothed tiger, or in modern times as we wangle our way out of a stress-inducing work presentation.)

So, we developed these stress hormones and responses to protect and look after us. But if we stimulate the adrenal glands constantly, by drinking coffee, we’re placing our body under a lot of stress.

In effect, we’re eliciting the stress response when we don’t necessarily need it, and so these stress hormones are floating around the body with nothing to do. This means that we’re compromising the work of the adrenal glands, which can lead to adrenal fatigue.

Adrenal Fatique

Adrenal fatigue is a medical condition not yet fully recognised by all doctors and therefore can be tricky to diagnose. It has symptoms including fatigue, weakness, a loss of appetite, unexplained weight loss, muscle and joint pain and low blood pressure.

Some people believe that regular caffeine consumption can lead to the symptoms of adrenal fatigue - many of which are quite the opposite to what we want from a cup of coffee!

Damage Mucous Membranes

Coffee is also acidic, meaning that it can affect our mucous membranes and our gastrointestinal system. When we metabolise coffee, it leaves behind a chemical called tannic acid. Tannic acid can potentially damage the mucous membranes, including the lining of the gut, and cause chronic gastritis.

Iron Deficiency

Tannins such as tannic acid can also reduce iron absorption from the gut, potentially causing an iron deficiency and can cause nausea, especially if consumed on an empty stomach.

If you feel nauseous in the morning, it could well be linked to your coffee consumption, especially if you’re drinking it first thing in the morning, without any food.

The Impact of Coffee on our Skin

Caffeine is a mild diuretic. A diuretic is something that makes us want to pee and can therefore prove dehydrating. Dehydration will show in our skin - it’ll make it appear dull and sullen.

There are some other potential downsides to drinking coffee that can impact our skin in a negative way, and they depend on how we drink it.

Consider the Effects of Adding Milk

Adding cow’s milk to a latte or cappuccino may be as natural to you as breathing. But dairy can be a cause of your skin problems including acne. Dairy products contain a hormone that’s produced by dairy cows, called insulin like growth factor 1, or IGF-1.

IGF-1 triggers the release of sebum, the natural oily, wax-like substance that protects our skin. Too much sebum causes oily skin and acne breakouts. (If you have acne prone skin, why not explore the range of dairy free milks now available to see if that makes any difference?)

Increased Oiliness and Acne Breakouts

Also, as we learned above, drinking caffeine releases cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone that’s released as a response to our body being under stress. High levels of cortisol also triggers the release of more sebum. Which as we now know, causes oiliness and acne breakouts.

Inflammation and Skin Irritation

If you tend to have a croissant with your morning coffee, then all that sugar could also be aggravating your skin. The same goes for if you add sugar to your coffee.

Sugar is an inflammatory food. When we eat it, our body releases insulin, a hormone that helps to manage blood sugar levels. High insulin levels can lead to high levels of inflammation (hence why type 2 diabetes is a chronic inflammatory condition) and acne breakouts.

But you don’t need us to tell you that cakes and pastries should be reserved as treats.

If you’re looking for the perfect skin care products to support your skin, then we’re here to help. Our range of cream cleansers, moisturisers, toning sprays, masks and serums has been developed to suit all skin types. You’ll benefit especially if your skin is stressed out, dehydrated or prone to acne, oiliness or redness.

The Consequences of a Lifetime of Coffee Consumption

Drinking coffee leaves acids in the body, which can have negative health impacts. Coffee beans are roasted before they reach our cups and mugs, and the process of roasting can make the consumption of coffee even more detrimental to our health.

Increased Free Radicals in Our Bodies

This is because raw coffee beans contain some level of fat and when these fats are exposed to the heat of the roasting process, they can become damaged or oxidised. Drinking coffee made from oxidised beans can introduce free radicals into the body.

Free radicals are nasty, unstable molecules that cause damage to our DNA and cells, including our skin cells. They can lead to chronic inflammation and disease.

Increased Stress Hormones Irritate our Gut Lining

Even the “beneficial” laxative effect of coffee isn’t as beneficial as we might first think. This effect of giving us a regular bowel is actually a downside of coffee due to the fact that the caffeine is putting our body into a state of stress. The stress hormones released then irritate the lining of the gut, gas is formed, and our bowels undergo an unnatural emptying.

Caffeine is addictive and it’s a toxin that gives us an acute, artificial stimulus. We’re then left craving more when the effects wear off, just like having an addiction to any drug would.

Yet not many people give a thought to how bad coffee is when they put the kettle on every day.

Should I Give Up Coffee?

If you're drinking multiple cups of coffee a day, then going cold turkey is going to hurt. It may be an idea though, to reduce your coffee intake so that you can get to one or two a day.

If you’re keen to give up coffee, then expect headaches, constipation and lethargy for at least a few weeks. It takes around a week for your body to detox from coffee, so the worst symptoms will be felt during this time.

Some people who give up coffee replace it with a tea that’s considered healthy, such as matcha tea, a type of green tea.

But it’s important to remember that even the healthiest matcha tea contains caffeine, albeit a slow release caffeine - you may feel the effects over four to five hours, compared to around 30 minutes for coffee. So don’t replace it cup for cup, perhaps have matcha tea, once a day, early in the day.

Reducing your coffee intake can have significant health benefits, including better sleep, less insomnia, a lower heart rate and a lower chance of developing dizziness, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Well worth considering when you’re bleary eyed tomorrow morning!

This article is not meant to treat or diagnose. Please visit your doctor for advice about any health concerns you may have.

References

This article is not meant to treat or diagnose. Please visit your doctor for advice about any health concerns you may have.