Coffee Consumption

Almost everybody believes that coffee consumption can cause some nasty effects over time, but is this true? Cases of kidney disease have increased recently, and are still increasing – is coffee causing it? Let’s find out…

Scientists recently have discovered that coffee may have health benefits, due to the variety of antioxidants present in the delicious drink. It may not contribute to kidney disease, but how can we settle this once and for all?

Well, the results don’t lie. A study was undertaken by a group of scientists in 2007, who decided to test 13 drinks across 800,000 adults to discover the effects. This was followed up 7 – 20 years later, and the results were published in 2007.

What does all of this actually mean?

Well, this means that people who consumed more than 24 oz of coffee a day, or more, were less likely to get kidney cancer than those who drank less. However, coffee can also be dangerous. It may lower your chances of kidney cancer, but there are huge dangers that can occur from excessive coffee consumption, such as:

Hydrochloric Acid: When you drink your delightful morning coffee each and every morning, this causes hydrochloric acid to be produced in your stomach. The problem with this is that hydrochloric acid should only be produced to digest food, and your body cannot produce huge amounts of it regularly, meaning your body may struggle to digest food later on in the day.

Especially indigested protein, this can cause bloating and gas, and even colon cancer. While this may not cause kidney cancer, colon cancer is just as serious, and therefore needs to be recognised as a side effect of excessive coffee consumption.

Irritation: Coffee can also irritate your stomach lining, this can cause problems to people who suffer from ulcers, or other stomach problems. However, coffee can help provide the nutrients that parasites need to survive in the stomach, which makes any infection survive longer – which you obviously don’t want.

Heartburn: Heartburn has been linked to coffee consumption, as coffee relaxes the muscle which should remain closed. It should stay closed to stop anything in your stomach burning the oesophagus, as this can be extremely problematic and painful. However, coffee relaxes this muscle – meaning that all of the contents of your stomach can burn the oesophagus, which is heartburn. It’s not just coffee that does this, any drink high in caffeine can cause excessive problems.

Laxative: Coffee also can act as a laxative, as undigested food passes straight to the small intestine, and stimulates gastric emptying. However, even decaffeinated coffee can cause this – so it’s best to enjoy coffee in moderation.

Is Coffee Good For Your Kidneys?

While Coffee may not exactly be good for your body, your kidneys especially, it isn’t exactly bad either. Coffee provides your body with a huge amount of antioxidants which keep your body healthy, however it also does contribute to some nasty side effects if it is consumed excessively.

How can I avoid these nasty side effects?

It’s incredibly easy to avoid these nasty coffee side effects, you can do this by simply enjoying coffee in moderation. This means no more than two to three cups a day! Which is more than enough to satisfy the standard coffee lover.

We’re not telling you to stop drinking coffee, as coffee does have a huge amount of health benefits. We are simply saying you should enjoy coffee in moderation, which means not excessively consuming coffee.

The majority of side effects which are caused by coffee are not caused by just having one cup of coffee a day, they are only caused/triggered if you consume a huge amount of coffee a day, which scarily – quite a lot of people do. This means if you have a few cups of coffee a day, you aren’t going to suffer from manic diarrhoea, this will only occur if you consume an unhealthy amount of coffee.

Coffee is best enjoyed as a treat, such as a morning coffee to start the day right. You shouldn’t drink coffee as your main drink every day, as this is one health problems start to crawl into the equation…