I’ve always thought it a bit interesting that the lethal dose of caffeine for most people is about 10 grams,
that toxic effects (like seizures) can be observed with consumption of around just 1,200 milligrams of caffeine (which is actually not that much considering that a big ol’ cup of Joe can contain up to 200mg of caffeine), yet, on tons of supplement and bulk foods websites, including Amazon, one can buy one bottle of bulk caffeine capsules that contain enough caffeine to KILL ten people.
Crazy, huh?
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m totally not against caffeine consumption. The stuff can literally be a superfood for the brain, performance, fat loss, and beyond. Heck, I consume caffeine in one form or another just about every day, with just a few slight but notable exceptions, which you’ll read about in this article.
But, as you’ll also learn in this article, caffeine is not something to just casually mess around with while assuming it’s not significantly, and sometimes deleteriously, affecting your neurotransmitters, hormones, and other precious elements of your nervous system (including most of your sleep architecture and circadian rhythmicity) because it just is. That fact can simply not be denied, and knowing how to mitigate risk is something you need to be aware of.
So, what do you do?
Drink coffee for all the health benefits therein, and keep your fingers crossed the caffeine isn’t going to be an issue?
Swear off coffee altogether?
Switch to decaf, but sacrifice flavor and enjoyment due to the bland, stale, chemical-laden nature of most decaf?
In today’s article, you’ll discover the answers to these questions, along with some of the many benefits of coffee (including decaf), how caffeine affects your body and why you should periodically take a break from it, how to identify the cleanest decaf coffee out there, and much more.
Benefits Of Coffee
The benefits of good, high-quality, antioxidant-rich coffee—emphasis on good because there are a lot of mycotoxin- and pesticide-laden coffee beans out there that will do you a lot more harm than good—are well-researched and include:
Add to this list the fact that coffee contains essential nutrients such as vitamin B2, B3, B5, manganese, potassium, and magnesium, and you can see that there are many reasons to include a cup in your morning routine. Just check out my podcast “The Ultimate Coffee Podcast: Everything You Need To Know About Coffee Health, Including The Latest Lab Results On Which Coffee Is The Healthiest.” if you’d like to take a deeper dive into some of these benefits.
For the vast, general population of healthy adults, moderate caffeine intake is not associated with commonly cited adverse effects, and surprisingly, the health benefits are linearly correlated with the amount of coffee you drink. Acceptable caffeine levels for most adults with no major health issues come out to about 4-5 mg per kg of body weight—with about 400mg per day being the max.
