Coffee- the science behind the fix

An Australian adult drinks 300 cups of coffee or 3 kg coffee beans each year. We have our morning coffee, the mid-morning coffee run with our colleagues and our afternoon pick-me-up coffee to get us through the rest of the day. But what is in our coffee and is it healthy?

How healthy is coffee for us?

There is no evidence to date to say that moderate coffee drinking is harmful to adults. Moderate coffee drinking is the equivalent of 300-400 mg caffeine per day. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are advised to limit their caffeine intake to 200mg per day.

Moderate caffeine intake:

• may reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 20-25%
• may have a protective effect against cardiovascular disease
• may reduce the risk of developing liver cancer
• has been increasingly linked with reduced risk of development of Alzheimer’s disease
• does not encourage dehydration in regular coffee drinkers
• does not induce high blood pressure

How much caffeine is in your drink?

What is in our coffee?

Sugars and syrups

If you are a coffee drinker, how do you take your coffee? Are you adding sugar or sweetened syrups to your coffee? These sweeteners and flavourings can quickly add up kilojoules to your coffee!

Milk coffees

Are you drinking milk-based coffees such as flat whites or lattes? Did you know that a large takeaway latte has approximately 400 mls of milk? That provides 1770kJ – 20% of the average adult’s daily energy requirement (8700kJ per day), along with 21g fat. If you drink two of these each day with one sugar in each, that packs a 3668kJ punch and 42% of the average energy requirement.

Hot tip: To avoid consuming excess energy, choose small for your milk-based coffee. You will receive all the nutrition and benefits of milk and coffee whilst cutting your kilojoule intake by 50%.