De'Caf Or Not De'Caf

That is the question.

For those of you who know me, you know I love my coffee.  To say I am coffee dependent would be an understatement.

I recently read in The Man Who Ate Everything about a French diet which bans caffeine.  As much as I love my sugar'free vanilla Americano, I couldn't help but wonder - is caffeine contraindicated for weight management? Why?  How?  I did some research - nothing serious - and come up with the following:

Caffeine & Weight Management: The Good
     Diuretic.
          Diuretics increase people's rate of urination.  When you urinate more, you lose
          more water.  Therefore caffeine can lead to (temporary) reductions in weight.
    Appetite suppressant.
          Effects are minor & brief.  The exact mechanism is not clear.
     Increases metabolism.
          Caffeine increases thermogenesis - heat creation - increasing the number of
          of calories burnt.

Caffeine & Weight Management: The Bad
     Stimulates production of adrenaline.
          Adrenaline increases your blood glucose level; therefore increasing production
          of insulin.  The insulin will eventually absorb sugars & fatty acids in the blood
          into cells.  The more sugar & fat stored in your body, the more you weigh.

So this basically shows that caffeine does good things & it does bad things. Great.  But what does that mean for people who drink coffee but are trying to manage their weight? Should we keep drinking coffee like usual?  Should we cut back?  Should we go completely decaf?  At this time I don't think there is a definitive answer to these questions; I am not sure if there ever will be a single answer.

Other than weight management, caffeine has also been show to have an impact on other aspects of health.  Most recently, a study conducted by Brigham and Women's Hospital & Harvard Medical School showed that women who consumed 3+ cups of coffee per day had 20% lower risk of developing basal cell carcinoma - the most common form of skin cancer.  Men who consumed 3+ cups of coffee per day benefited from a 9% reduction in risk.

Personally I believe in the cliche "everything in moderation".  Until there is strong evidence proving the beneficial/detrimental effects of caffeine on health, I am going to keep my morning cup.  But just to be cautious, I  think I will only have my afternoon cup only a couple times a week.

A final note, regardless of what type of coffee you like to drink, too much fat & sugar are definitely bad for you.  So whenever you can, try to stay away from the TripleGrandeCaramelMchaccinoWithWhip.