5 Cups of coffee per day (up to 400 mg of caffeine/day) is safe for most adults

https://newsroom.heart.org/news/coffee-and-heart-health-how-many-cups-of-caffeinated-coffee-are-safe-to-drink-each-day

by sbolt • 2 days ago

29 26 2 days ago

newsroom.heart.org

kvisner• 2 days ago

I have been so ahead of the curve on this, I'm going to live forever!

al_borland2• 2 days ago

The constant studies to justify coffee consumption remind me of all the studies to point to various forms of alcohol being healthy.

I gave up caffeine about 25 years ago after I figured out it was the source of my chronic headaches (they were withdrawal headaches). Any time I've traveled with a coffee drinker it seems most of the day, especially the morning, are centrally focused on finding and acquiring coffee. They can't focus on anything else, entertain conversation about other things, or do much of anything until they get their caffeine fix. It's actually quite disruptive and adds a lot of friction to mornings.

Is this "safe"? Maybe. It is healthy? It sure doesn't sound healthy. It sounds like any other addiction. It just so happens that we've accepted this one as a culture. At one time we accepted cigarettes as a culture as well, while it's a bit more taboo these days. Even alcohol use seems to be fading as studies have finally started to admit that it's actually not good for us in any amount.

Caffeine is likely not as damaging as cigarettes and alcohol, but I had a headache for a week straight when I quit it. That's rarely a sign of something good.

dluxem• 2 days ago

Similar story here. I was dealing with headaches every weekend, and it turns out that not sitting at a desk and drinking coffee on the weekend was the cause.

I gave up caffeine completely, and after a week and a half of headaches, the problem was gone. This has been about 4 years now.

I consume some caffeine now but try to keep it under 60mg a day or so.

pkulak2• 2 days ago

So, to summarize:

* People who drink coffee... enjoy drinking coffee, and seek it out, which bothers you.

* Some people (you in particular) have adverse reactions to stopping.

These two consequences _are_ shared by many addictive substances, but also by many other things, like water, or Grape Nuts, or human contact. I really don't see how it makes the thing automatically unhealthy. Like it or not, there's basically no evidence that coffee is unhealthy, and plenty of evidence that it may in fact be healthy.

al_borland2• 2 days ago

I would say what I've seen goes beyond simply liking coffee and seeking it out, which I tried to convey in the original comment. People enjoying coffee isn't what bothered me, it was the projection of the anxiety about where they were going to get it, that's what bothered me.

plenty of evidence that it may in fact be healthy.

This was part of my point. I think a lot of the studies are have a bias as people are always looking to justify their heavy coffee drinking. Those studies often make for good headlines that get shared a lot by coffee drinkers.

When studies repeatedly come out about the health benefits of what is often seen as a vice, it's worth being a little skeptical. There are plenty of studies with questionable funding that are effectively marketing dressed up as science. We've seen this play out many times in the past.

there's basically no evidence that coffee is unhealthy

This article we're discussing had a whole section on how caffeine affects the body, and it wasn't all positive. I'm not here to turn coffee into the new tobacco, I don't think it's that bad. However, I think it has a bigger impact on people's lives than they would like to admit, even if it is just that morning anxiety they have until their first cup. It's hard to see these things until you stop.

Even within the article itself there are contradictions.

It says this...

The latest research indicates that consuming up to 400 mg of caffeine/day (equivalent to up to 5, 8-ounce cups of caffeinated coffee per day) is generally safe for most adults and appears to be linked to a lower risk of several cardiovascular conditions, including heart failure, heart disease and stroke in some individuals.

Then it says this...

However, drinking more than 4 cups of caffeinated coffee a day may increase the risk of heart failure.

So more than 4 cups of coffee per day may increase the risk of heart failure, and this article is recommending drinking 5 cups.

It also talks about high blood pressure...

In people with optimal blood pressure, drinking 1–3 cups a day was associated with an increased risk of developing high blood pressure, while drinking more than 3 cups per day was associated with a lower risk.

So we need to drink more than 3 cups to make sure we don't have high blood pressure, but if we drink more than 4 cups we're at a higher risk for heart disease.

What are we supposed to take away from this? It sounds like the data is all over the place.

mordnis• 2 days ago

This is a very particular study. It is about relationship between coffee and heart disease, not coffee in general.

ChrisArchitect• 2 days ago

Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48979822

gleeker• 2 days ago

I take Adderall and caffeine is especially bad for me. During the day I’ll be extremely paralyzed to productivity but have no problem lying around on the phone. Later when it wears off I’ll have discomfort around my abdomen and strange shooting nerve pain around the area and parts of my chest. Thought it could be small heart attacks but it doesn’t feel like a crushing pain and it’s very temporary and doesn’t include other symptoms or spreading pain. I think it could be related to something psychosomatic or body trauma because a bully jumped on my chest/stomach as a kid and I haven’t sealed that chapter yet

thegrim33• 2 days ago

Do you not think that taking doses of literal amphetamines on a daily basis might be more associated with your complaints than consuming caffeine?

throwuxiytayq2• 2 days ago

Literal amphetamines are literally the most effective prescription drugs in the entire of field of psychiatry. Have some respect.

wao0uuno2• 2 days ago

Talk with your doctor and ask for EKG. Those meds are not safe for people with preexisting heart conditions. Better be safe than sorry (or dead).

pixel_popping3• 2 days ago

However, higher amounts of caffeine, such as levels found in energy drinks including energy shots, may increase the risk of high blood pressure and/or irregular heart rhythm or arrhythmia.

Energy drinks don't have much caffeine in them, way lower than almost any drink at Starbucks and so-on, it's exhausting to see this myth continuing especially when it's websites specialized in Health, I'm not saying energy drinks are healthy, but it's time to stop saying they are "high caffeine, high whatever" because it's not the case, except the ones that are made to be hardcore but those are rare. For the majority of them, they are just a soda, with caffeine.

ar_lan• 2 days ago

Energy drinks don't have much caffeine in them

I'm just pulling the most prominent ones at my nearest gas station:

* Celsius: 200mg

* Alani Nu: 200mg

* Rockstar: 160mg

* Monster: 160mg

* Reign: 300mg

* Bang: 300mg

* Red Bull: 80mg

* Ghost: 200mg

* C4: 200mg

* NOS: 160mg

A standard soda can is about 35mg caffeine.

I do not think it's a myth to claim that on average, energy drinks have a high amount of caffeine.

pixel_popping3• 2 days ago

It's not high, as per the same article, drinking 2 of those a day would be fine right? The ones you've listed also are always the big cans (for most) which to be a fair comparison with commercial coffees would also be large jugs.

The comparison isn't versus Soda which are considered not caffeinated by most people but against regular coffees, commercial coffees specifically (as home-made energy drinks are relatively healthy, similar to home made coffees).

Now pull the average Starbucks coffee list, it's likely higher in average.

tetris11• 2 days ago

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elmer2• 2 days ago

I have a hard time with Caffeine. It will work for awhile, but at some point, I start getting massive anxiety and have to quit. Quitting takes me a week and comes with body pains and sometimes mild depression.

When I was in high school, I used to drink tons of Mt. Dew. I always thought having anxiety was just part of who I am. After quitting it for weeks and months at at a time, my anxiety mostly went away.

wao0uuno2• 2 days ago

I had problems with anxiety and irritability that went away after I removed coffee and sugar from my diet. Coffee would make me more alert but wouldn’t actually help me think and be more productive. I miss that smell and taste though.

clickety_clack2• 2 days ago

Purely for balance, based on the comments where people have issue with it: I don’t have any issues with coffee. I don’t get any headaches or intestinal pain, and I don’t get withdrawals when I go on holidays or anything. I can drink a cup at 9pm and sleep just fine. I just really like the taste and smell of it, and really like to drink it, and I think going to a cafe is a great excuse to get out of the house for a while to sit somewhere and read a book for an hour.

Based on the number of people I see around me whenever I go to a coffee shop, I think there’s many people like me. It’s nice to see yet another study that shows there’s no real health impact to it.

gabrielsroka2• 2 days ago

Have you read any of the many articles like this?

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36870101/

clickety_clack2• 1 day ago

Nope, and this one isn’t going to change my behavior in the slightest. I’m pretty confident that an occasional late coffee isn’t going to kill me.

5 Cups of coffee per day (up to 400 mg of caffeine/day) is safe for most adults

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