Table of Contents
Introduction
For decades, people have been curious about one common query, i.e., can coffee stunt your growth? Sometimes coffee lovers take this belief too seriously without any research and restrict their young children from drinking coffee. This query required too much attention and understanding in all ways, especially since it is necessary to know what scientific studies say about the relation between coffee intake and human growth.
In this article, we are going to explore this query. Finding out all the important details, especially the scientific parameters regarding can coffee stunt your growth.
Where does this belief come from
The answer of can coffee stunt your growth, is based on two things. The first one is old health myths. In past times, the scientific studies regarding coffee and its impact on health were not fully explored. People usually thought that coffee might weaken bones or slow down bone development because of the bad impact of coffee caffeine and decreased calcium absorption. That thought converts into a strong belief over time.
The second factor is the early 20th century marketing campaign. Some milk and cereal brands promote milk as a beneficial drink for bones by delicately promoting coffee as an adult beverage. This campaign stuck in people’s minds, which followed over generations, due to that, people stopped their children from coffee consumption, thinking that consuming coffee could harm their children’s growth.
Can coffee stunt your growth?
The answer is hidden behind the findings of modern scientific research and studies. So, in order to understand can coffee stunt your growth, let’s explore how human growth really works. Human growth is based on multiple factors like hormones, genetics, nutrition and lifestyle. Let’s explore each factor one by one.
Role of genetics and hormones
Genetics and hormones are key factors that play an important role in the body’s growth, especially in height. When a child’s body evolves into an adult, then these genetics control the growth of bones and tissues near the end of long bones, through which the height of a person is increased.
Similarly, growth hormones are also an important factor that influences the overall body’s development, especially in bone growth. Once this growth is stopped, then the height stops growing further.
Role of Nutrition
Humans require multiple vitamins, minerals and nutrition for perfect body growth and these all come from a perfect diet, which is rich in protein, vitamins, calcium and many other necessary nutrients. Especially for increasing height and strengthening bones, vitamin D and calcium are considered necessary nutrition. Caffeine from a cup of coffee can affect the calcium absorption, but this effect is minimal. We will discuss this impact of caffeine on calcium absorption in the next section, but for now, we conclude that human body growth depends on multiple factors and only consuming coffee cannot cause any negative impact on growth, especially bone growth.
What science says about coffee and growth
The impact of caffeine on calcium absorption. This is an important factor that a coffee consumer must be aware of and the clarification of can coffee stunt your growth is hidden behind this factor. Let’s explore what science says about it…
According to the research published by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Food and Chemical Toxicology, coffee doesn’t impact human bones directly. However, the caffeine that is naturally present inside the coffee can increase the calcium extraction in urine. According to the study, almost 4 to 6 mg of calcium per cup of coffee is extracted in urine but this amount is minimal and easily balanced by drinking milk or consuming a proper diet.
Internal health departmental bodies like the World Health Organization and the National Institute of Health confirmed that moderate caffeine intake is safe for adults and teenagers both. However, caffeine has some other disadvantages, like excessive caffeine intake can cause jitters, sleep disruption, raised BP spikes for a short time and increased urination.
Coffee consumption limit
After knowing the answer to our query, can coffee stunt your growth? One more important thing is the coffee consumption limit that coffee consumers should know, especially those parents who are worried about their children’s growth.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, one cup of coffee intake (almost 8 ounces of coffee & 100 mg of caffeine) is enough for children from ages 12 to 18. More than that limit can cause some side effects, like limited raised BP and increased urination. One more concern for young children, especially for teenagers, is that excessive caffeine can impact their brain nerves, resulting in a disturbed sleeping schedule and restlessness and can also interfere in cognitive tasks like disturbing focusing and critical thinking. Height growth hormones are released during sleeping. Excessive coffee consumption can reduce the sleeping time period and can indirectly cause negative impact on height and growth.
Habits that should be adopted to prevent side effects
Despite limiting coffee consumption, there are some other habits that should necessarily be adopted to avoid any side effects of coffee on health.
- Drink coffee at the start of the day or in the afternoon or evening, avoid consuming it at night or just before going to sleep.
- Choose a small cup size while serving coffee, especially when serving to children. Also, if you add some extra amount of milk or calcium ingredients, then it will be considered good.
- Always stay hydrated. According to research, usually people replace coffee with water consumption, which is risky. Remember, reducing water intake can cause very serious health concerns like heart diseases and kidney issues.
- If drinking coffee is your daily routine, then it is better to avoid any other drink like a cold drink or energy drink that has caffeine. It may increase the level of caffeine, so it’s better to avoid any other caffeine intake.
Health benefits of drinking coffee
After exploring can coffee stunt your growth, let’s explore the health benefits of drinking coffee. Coffee is rich in nutrition and vitamins like B2, B3 and B5. Contain manganese and potassium and consider a source of antioxidants. This will help reduce oxidative stress and prevent body from cell damage. Consuming coffee with limitation can enhance cognitive performance like concentration, focusing, less tiredness and increased metabolic activity.
Conclusion
Lastly, we conclude that the quotes that we all are listing from decades like
- Can coffee stunt your growth?
- Coffee stops you from growing taller…
- Teens should avoid coffee…
These all are myths, coffee is considered a good and safe beverage if it is consumed within limits and conditions and there is no any negative impact of coffee on height or overall body growth. However, this beloved beverage provides some advantages too if consumed within the mentioned limits and circumstances.