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Is caffeine good for you, bad for you, or somewhere in between? Dr. Barrett breaks down everything you need to know - starting with four common myths (that caffeine gives you energy, that coffee dehydrates you, that it's bad for your heart, and that you can drink it at night with no consequences). He covers ideal dosing, why timing matters more than amount, his personal hierarchy of caffeine sources, what the research says about coffee and tea's longevity benefits, whether caffeine is safe for kids, and five practical rules for using caffeine well.
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Watch the episode on YouTube here!
DISCLAIMER
This content is strictly the opinion of Dr. Barrett Deubert and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to replace medical advice or treatment from a physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding health questions and concerns. Neither Dr. Deubert nor the Real Health Co. takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All audience members, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program.
. . .
Watch the episode on YouTube here!
- (00:00) - Intro
- (00:39) - 4 Caffeine Myths Debunked
- (04:49) - How Much Caffeine Is Ideal?
- (06:26) - Timing: Why Your Cutoff Time Matters
- (07:53) - The Caffeine Hierarchy: Best Sources
- (08:59) - Energy Drinks: Good vs. Bad
- (10:29) - Coffee & Tea Longevity Research
- (12:47) - Is Caffeine Safe for Kids?
- (14:52) - 5 Rules for Smart Caffeine Use
- (16:16) - Closing Thoughts
DISCLAIMER
This content is strictly the opinion of Dr. Barrett Deubert and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to replace medical advice or treatment from a physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding health questions and concerns. Neither Dr. Deubert nor the Real Health Co. takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All audience members, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program.
Creators and Guests
What is The Real Health Podcast?
You've tried everything: extreme diets, expensive specialists, and medicine with side effects. Yet you're still stuck. This show is for you. The Real Health Podcast is hosted by Dr. Barrett Deubert, a practicing chiropractor and functional medicine provider who treats patients dealing with exactly what you're dealing with: weight that won't move, energy that never comes back, chronic symptoms doctors can't explain. Each week, he digs into the actual root cause behind things like weight loss resistance, hormone imbalance, autoimmune flare-ups, and metabolic dysfunction. No fad diets, no miracle supplements, no blaming you for not trying hard enough. Just real, evidence-based answers for why your body hasn't been working the way it should, and what actually helps.
On today's episode of the Real Health Podcast, we're talking everything caffeine. Is caffeine good for you, bad for you? Is there a certain limit? Is it safe for kids? Everything you need to know about caffeine and the best sources for caffeine consumption.
Dr. Barrett:Welcome back to another episode of the Real Health Podcast. Today, we're diving into caffeine, everything about caffeine. We're gonna talk about the best sources. We're talking about the right dosing, the right strategy, how to view caffeine. Is it safe for kids?
Dr. Barrett:And we'll even dispel some myths. So make sure you listen through the whole episode because today we're going to jam pack information on everything you need to know about this amazing molecule called caffeine. And I think the most important thing to start with is there are some major myths out there. And let's just go through a couple that I have written out. The first one is caffeine gives you energy.
Dr. Barrett:Just to create hyper clarity here, caffeine is not an energy molecule. It is a stimulant. It is stimulating your central nervous system. So we do have to view caffeine through the lens of stimulant, not energy. When we if we're if we don't have energy, we've got a we've got a nutritional issue.
Dr. Barrett:We've got a mitochondrial problem. We've got an inability to generate an energy molecule called ATP. This is a problem, okay? Now, if we're trying to get a boost of productivity, if we're trying to lock into something and we that's where caffeine can operate as a central nervous system stimulant. So caffeine does not give you energy.
Dr. Barrett:It gives you stimulation. And there's times we want that and times we don't. How about this myth? Coffee dehydrates you. This is actually a myth.
Dr. Barrett:Coffee has a little bit and tea have a mild diuretic effect, but actually coffee is not negative water like you may hear. The amount of liquid in coffee, it is proportional to the amount of water that you would consume. So if you drink 12 ounces of coffee, you can consider that 12 ounces of liquid or water. Now the difference is, again, caffeine, coffee, tea, it does have a mild diuretic effect, so you'll lose a little bit there, but it is not necessarily a, hey, it's you know, you take 12 ounces away from your water intake every time you drink 12 ounces of coffee. Coffee is how about number three?
Dr. Barrett:Coffee is bad for the heart. There is the reality that coffee can mildly elevate blood pressure, but actually all research shows caffeine has specifically coffee a beneficial effect to the cardiovascular system. Coffee is not bad for the heart and we will share some research on that in just a second. And the last one is, I can drink coffee at night and I'm perfectly fine. It doesn't affect my sleep at all.
Dr. Barrett:And this is a myth. It may not affect how you fall asleep, but it definitely affects sleep architecture. It affects your REM and deep sleep cycles, how far and how long you're in those cycles. It does affect resting heart rate. There are some major issues where it starts to affect the quality of sleep, although it may not necessarily affect the quantity of sleep.
Dr. Barrett:So it is important to delineate the difference between, hey, I can drink caffeine and fall asleep, it doesn't disrupt my sleep, to hey, don't consume caffeine past a certain time because I want the highest quality sleep I can get. And we'll talk about that again on today's episode. So let's get through it. Let's talk through it. First, I established this in the beginning.
Dr. Barrett:Caffeine is not energy. It is a stimulant and it doesn't replace sleep, calories, protein, right, macronutrients, micronutrients. It doesn't replace, mitochondrial health and energy creation. It is something that can improve performance, and I think that's really important. Caffeine has been established to improve performance, but it's not going to compensate for poor recovery.
Dr. Barrett:So if you didn't sleep good, caffeine's really not going to help you in your recovery. It's going to help you maybe mildly feel better, but it is not a recovery molecule. It is a stimulant and it does quite the opposite of helping your body recover. It actually puts your nervous system in a more stressed state. So it's important to understand the distinction.
Dr. Barrett:Caffeine is a stimulant. It is not an energy molecule helping you recover. How much caffeine is ideal? Well, the guidelines of the FDA show about four hundred milligrams per day. Now, is that appropriate for you?
Dr. Barrett:Well, I think there's people have different genetics in how they metabolize caffeine. Some people metabolize it quickly, some people slowly. And so it's important to understand how much caffeine your body responds appropriately to. And I would say, what's the minimum effective dose? Is that fifty milligrams?
Dr. Barrett:Is that one hundred milligrams? And how many times of that throughout the day? So I'm a known tea drinker, and I drink tea pretty much throughout the day. So I know I'm getting close to that three hundred to four hundred milligram mark every single day. But when I drink tea, it doesn't necessarily create this anxiousness in me.
Dr. Barrett:But if I were to ever try a pre workout, oh, that blows me up. Now there's also other stimulants in that, so I think that's probably the issue. But the type, the quantity of caffeine matters, but also the delivery matters, which we'll talk about here in just a second. So what's a general rule of thumb? Again, I think under 400 for adults and anywhere between one hundred, two fifty milligrams on most days is a really good dose.
Dr. Barrett:If you go beyond that, I think it does start to affect the state of the nervous system that can impact anxiety and sleep and recovery and palpitations and blood pressure. So we want to consider that. Number three, timing matters sometimes even more than the dosing, right? So it's like how much caffeine do you drink? Well, I think the more appropriate question is when do you drink caffeine?
Dr. Barrett:And when is your last is the last time you drink caffeine for the day? So I have a hard cutoff. It's 02:00. And the reason why it's 02:00 because genetically, caffeine will stay in your body for about eight hours. So the half life of it is something where, hey, I want that caffeine to wear off by nine and 10:00 at night, I get a good deep restorative sleep cycle.
Dr. Barrett:If you drink caffeine at three, four, or 05:00 thinking it doesn't affect you, it is affecting your sleep and your recovery. And you can't necessarily, bypass the reality that caffeine has a long half life. Now some genetics can alter that to a degree, but if I were you and I didn't know my caffeine genetics based on those enzymes and how quickly you remove it, then I would have a two cutoff window. And that's a kind of a non negotiable for me. I don't consume caffeine past 2PM.
Dr. Barrett:And so I think more importantly, it's, hey, if you wake up at five, you wanna delay your caffeine an hour till six and then start your caffeine consumption around six and then end it off at 02:00. And that window of time I think is great. It stimulates the nervous system. It helps your body get into work mode and then it allows it to taper for the rest of day and get you into a good restorative sleep cycle. Let's go into my caffeine hierarchy.
Dr. Barrett:What I think is the best sources. I think number one, the best source is either coffee or tea. I'm kind of fiftyfifty on this. Me, I think my body responds typically better off of tea, particularly yerba mate's. Probably my favorite way to consume caffeine.
Dr. Barrett:And not from like a taste perspective. Yerba mate's is pretty earthy, but the way I feel off of it is with that L theanine content, B vitamins and minerals, feel really good. I also feel really good off green tea and matcha, but I can feel really good off coffee. It just depends on the type of coffee. And this is where you got to be mindful.
Dr. Barrett:Coffee can be super dirty or can be super clean. And coffee can be full of mold or it can be mold free. Coffee can be full of minerals or could be mineral, deprived. So making sure you're getting a mold for your mycotoxin free coffee is essential. Now, once you look at hierarchy of caffeine consumption, coffee, tea is at the top of the list.
Dr. Barrett:And then from there, we look at energy drinks and which ones are good, which ones are bad. And my general take on energy drinks is, hey, just look at the label. What's in it? All right, is there artificial sweeteners, colors, dyes? If there are, well, that's an issue because that's going to stimulate your nervous system in a whole different way that you don't want.
Dr. Barrett:That's more neuroinflammatory. So we want to make sure if we're consuming a Bloom energy drink, right, that's kind of a seltzer based with some prebiotics, Yeah, I think that's fine. I think, a Jocco energy drink is great. I think having, some other nutrients, micronutrients in our energy drinks are fine. It's where you get into the three hundred milligram dose energy drink where you get probably a little bit in trouble and where the market has gone to.
Dr. Barrett:So I do like the fact that coffee and tea, naturally tea especially, has L theanine in it, which keeps your nervous system calm even when it's being kind of spiked. And so my hierarchy will always be coffee tea at the top and then working its way down. I mean, if we're talking caffeine, I mean, chocolate, caffeine's in chocolate, I love that, but it's usually not obviously gonna give you the caffeine that you're looking for. And then energy drinks are at the bottom. There's some really compelling research on coffee and its benefits to longevity.
Dr. Barrett:Coffee has been shown in around three to four cups a day have fifteen percent lower cardiovascular disease risk. Fifteen percent. Nineteen percent lower cardiovascular mortality and seventeen percent lower all cause mortality compared with no coffee consumption. And this is really cool and we even see the research with type two diabetes that people that are coffee drinkers have lower risk for type two diabetes. And when you look at that research it's hard to say coffee is bad.
Dr. Barrett:Again, I think coffee in general is very healthy for you. I think the type of coffee that you're drinking is critical, so make sure you're getting a clean source. There is some data that shows that caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee has lower both lower the risk of type two diabetes. So we look at that and we say, Okay, I wonder why. And when we look at coffee as the bean itself and the micronutrients we're getting from it, then it starts to make sense for us.
Dr. Barrett:It's actually not the caffeine that's necessarily reducing type two diabetic risk. It's the nutrient value in coffee and in tea that's really driving those markers down. And then there's anticancer benefits to green tea specific antioxidants that's found in the plant. So all of those polyphenols that are found in plants that are coffee and tea really do lower disease risk all the way from neurodegenerative to chronic disease risk mortality issues. When we look at T, T has some of the similar benefits.
Dr. Barrett:Four percent lower cardiovascular mortality, two percent lower cardiovascular events, four percent lower stroke risk, one point five percent lower all cause mortality. So tea and coffee inherently should be considered beneficial for everyone's health. What about caffeine for kids? Right? So here's here's the thing with kids.
Dr. Barrett:Kids, their brains are developing. Caffeine is has to be considered a stimulant. And so, you know, if we can avoid caffeine in kids, although there isn't data that says caffeine is is, one hundred milligrams caffeine is negative to a child's health, and we're really talking about teenagers. The reality is avoiding caffeine is generally recommended for children, for teenagers. Yes.
Dr. Barrett:There are ways that caffeine can benefit performance, but we just wanna be super mindful that, you know, in kids, I don't know how well they can regulate their own caffeine consumption. I mean, adults even have a hard time. So putting that in the hands of a 15 year old, I mean, I could only imagine them going from fifty milligrams to one hundred to one hundred and fifty to five hundred milligrams really, really quickly. And so I do think it's important to consider, although we're not seeing, risks associated with kids at a lower dose, I think it's where we get into the higher doses and we see that with college students in particular at five hundred milligrams, six hundred milligrams, and they're having anxiety, well, we have to look at caffeine as a probable association with that. And caffeine unregulated can affect sleep, can cause anxiety, can increase heart rate, increase high blood pressure, cause GI distress.
Dr. Barrett:And so I think it's just too early for kids to get on and keep themselves accountable to a certain amount and regulate that properly. And and, when you look at caffeine as a whole, I think these five rules is something that would add some value to you. And the number one is don't confuse the safe maximum with optimal. Just because the FDA says four hundred to five hundred milligrams is within tolerable range doesn't mean that's the optimal dose for everyone. And genetics do play a role.
Dr. Barrett:Try to find the minimum effective dose. So what is the minimum amount I can use to generate the particular health improvement marker that I'm making? Number two, earn your caffeine with sleep. Earn your caffeine with sleep. Get good, deep restorative sleep, and don't compensate for inadequate recovery.
Dr. Barrett:Rule three, choose food based sources first. Coffee and tea are typically going to be the best sources for you. Number four, protect your sleep. Have a strong cutoff at two p. M.
Dr. Barrett:Okay? Strong cutoff at two p. M. On all caffeine. And number five is I would suggest going through seasons of caffeine reduction.
Dr. Barrett:So maybe you're at three hundred, four hundred milligrams right now a day. Hey, take a weekend and say on Saturday, I'm gonna delay my caffeine even more, and I'm only gonna do two hundred milligrams. Or have a have a week where you're due just one cup of coffee a day, or have a progression where you then go off of caffeine for a day, a week, or a couple weeks. I think just resynthesizing the body to caffeine can only be beneficial for us and to make sure that we're not caught in that loop where more is better because at some point you'll have a negative return on that investment. Caffeine is something that I think a lot of people look at and may say, oh, it's bad for us.
Dr. Barrett:Caffeine inherently is a beneficial molecule, an incredible molecule that has a lot of benefits to our overall health. Consumed in the right way, in the right form, at the right time, Caffeine can do wonders for your health. Keep it away from kids as long as they can and for you try to consume it in whole food sources. Make sure that coffee is mold free and if you haven't tried it Yerba Mate and Matcha and Green Tea are great options in replacement of that coffee. Hey as always thanks for listening to another episode of Real Health Podcast.