How Much Coffee Should You Drink Per Day?
There are a number of different factors involved, and it varies from person to person, but we'll look into a few important details.
TL;DR: It all comes down to the amount of caffeine you're consuming. According to the Mayo Clinic, up to 400 milligrams (mg) of caffeine a day appears to be safe for most healthy adults. That's roughly the amount of caffeine in four 6oz cups of brewed coffee. Personally, I used to get jitters and anxiety if I drank more than 1 cup of coffee. But I recently discovered Joe 2.0, a coffee that is enhanced with natural herbs to help eliminate these negative side effects.
For those who want to learn more, here are a few things to consider:
Caffeine Sensitivity
We all react very differently to the substances we consume, and coffee is no different. There are three large groups:
Hyper-Sensitive: People in this group get reactive to small amounts of caffeine, sometimes a cup or less will cause them insomnia, accelerated heart beat, and jitters. Also worthy of note, all of the health benefits mentioned above, are not established as true for people under this category.
Normal: The vast majority of the population lies under this group. They can usually take up to 400 mgs of caffeine daily without showing any side effects. All of the studies made about the caffeine benefits are proven right for people with normal sensitivity.
Hypo-Sensitivity: Roughly 1 out of 10 people are born hypo-sensitive to caffeine, which means they can take massive doses (sometimes more than 600 mgs per day) and not show any side effect at all. People in this group might not experience the same health benefits from drinking the recommended amount of coffee per day.
After reading the above groups, can you take a guess at which one you fall under?
On the other hand, we have caffeine tolerance, and this happens when your body slowly generates a natural resistance to the effects of caffeine, as opposed to the first time you had it. Caffeine tolerance can develop in as early as one day, or take up to four. You can also reset your caffeine tolerance level by detoxing your body completely from it — tapering off your consumption for several weeks. However, our bodies have simple detoxing protocols for all foreign substances, and they do it now and then, so you don’t have to worry about this.
Simply put, regular coffee drinkers have a higher tolerance for caffeine.
Caffeine Concentration
It highly depends on the ratio of water to coffee grounds that’s being used. The golden standard is to use 2 tablespoons of grounds for every 6oz of water, but this is often not followed. Many people & restaurants will only use 1 tablespoon of grounds for each 6oz of water. As you can probably guess, the coffee that uses double the amount of grounds is going to have double the caffeine.
Certain types of coffee can also have more caffeine than others. Regular coffee generally has more caffeine than instant coffee. Even decaf can have up to 10mg of caffeine per cup. Espresso has the highest concentration of caffeine, which is why you'll never see it served in 12oz or 24oz cups as coffee often is.
The type of coffee beans being used is also a factor. Arabica beans & Robusta beans are the most commonly used types, with Robusta beans containing more caffeine.
The bottom line is: Coffee has way more positive effects on our overall health than negative ones. If you give yourself the time to analyze exactly how your body reacts to caffeine, and adhere to the safe amounts recommended, you will be just fine to enjoy all the benefits of coffee.
Joe 2.0 Coffee, with its naturally infused herbs & amino acids, is much less likely to give you the common negative side effects of caffein consumption.