Coffee doesn’t give you extra energy

When it comes to waking up in the morning, most of us rely on a cup of coffee to give us the boost we need.

But, according to an expert, your regular black coffee or latte will not actually give you extra energy, but, on the contrary, will take it away.

Dr Emma Beckett, a molecular nutritionist at Newcastle University, said that this wakefulness “loan” must eventually be repaid by sleep.

Caffeine prevents drowsiness by temporarily blocking something called adenosine.

This chemical is part of the system that regulates our sleep-wake cycle, with levels rising throughout the day as it is released as a by-product when our cells use energy. Ultimately, adenosine binds to its receptor, which tells cells to slow down, making us feel sleepy.

Caffeine can help us feel alert.

“But there’s a catch,” Dr. Beckett wrote on the Conversation website. “This little caffeine intervention is more of a borrowing of a sense of alertness than the creation of any new energy. Caffeine won’t last forever, and the adenosine it blocks won’t go anywhere. So, in the end, caffeine breaks down, releases the receptors, and all that adenosine that has been waiting and accumulating returns the feeling of drowsiness and fatigue. The only real way to get rid of these feelings is to sleep.”

Dr. Beckett also explained that during sleep, adenosine levels drop as we expend less energy, which means we wake up more energetic in the morning.

Drinking coffee later in the day, when there is more adenosine in the body, may be more effective than drinking a morning cup. And if you like coffee with sugar, it can exacerbate the possible feeling of “failure” after a spike in blood sugar, she added.

The caffeine found in tea, energy drinks, and other drinks will affect the body in a similar way.

A recent study found that drinking two to three cups of coffee a day may be associated with increased life expectancy. Scientists found that two to three cups a day were associated with a 27 percent lower chance of death compared to those who didn’t drink it at all.

The results, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, apply to ground, instant and decaffeinated coffees, and the researchers argue that coffee consumption should be considered part of a healthy lifestyle.

Christina DENISYUK.

A source: www.dailymail.co.uk