This is the effect of coffee on your body
30 October 2024

We love coffee in the Netherlands. Yet we are becoming increasingly aware of its effects on our well-being. What does coffee do to our health, and what options are there if you want to replace your ‘daily fix’ with an alternative?
Mad about coffee
The Netherlands is in the world’s top five when it comes to coffee drinkers. Research shows that we drink 33.5 million cups of coffee a day in our country. Per year, that’s about 8.4 kilos of coffee per person.
As much as we love coffee, its consumption seems to have declined here in recent years. One reason for this is that we are focusing more on healthy living. Because although black coffee fits into the Nutrition Centre’s Wheel of Five, it has a considerable impact on our health – both positive and negative.
What effect does coffee have on your health?
Coffee contains caffeine, a stimulant that affects the central nervous system. Caffeine increases your alertness, improves physical performance and is even linked by scientists to a reduced risk of heart disease, stroke and certain cancers.
Yet coffee is far from just beneficial. Too much caffeine can cause headaches, tinnitus, trembling and restlessness. Your body also makes more cortisol, which increases your blood pressure and disrupts your sleep/wake cycle. In addition, coffee contains the substance cafestol. This can actually increase your cholesterol and your risk of cardiovascular disease. The Nutrition Centre therefore recommends drinking no more than 5 cups of coffee a day.
Coffee substitutes
With more attention being paid to the effects of coffee on our health, we are increasingly opting for coffee substitutes. The advantage is that these alternatives often contain very little to no caffeine and still have the warming and uplifting effect of coffee. Looking for an alternative to your daily cup of coffee? Here are some of our favourites:
- ‘Golden milk’: a blend of (plant-based) milk with turmeric, black pepper and a little honey. Golden milk is said to have various anti-inflammatory properties.
- Chicory coffee: a grind of roasted chicory roots that tastes like coffee but contains no caffeine.
- Matcha tea: a special green tea from Japan that you mix with water or milk. Like coffee, matcha contains caffeine, but because this drink also contains the amino acid L-theanine, it actually has a calming effect.
- Herbal tea: cups of chamomile, ginger and rooibos tea are all caffeine-free and simply brewed. This is one of the easiest coffee substitutes.
Are you a true coffee lover and don’t want to swap it for a (healthier) alternative? Then it would still be wise not to drink coffee in the evening. As a guideline, drink your last cup of coffee in the early afternoon, preferably no later than 3-4 hours before bedtime. This way, you give your body enough time to break down the caffeine so that it does not disturb your sleep.
Did you know…?
Green and black tea contain caffeine just like coffee? If you often drink coffee, don’t combine it with (too much) tea. A good rule of thumb is to consume no more than 400 milligrams of caffeine. A cup of filter coffee contains about 60 mg of caffeine and a cup of black tea about 30 mg.
So, drinking coffee is healthy as long as you drink it in moderation. If you drink more than 5 cups a day or often combine coffee with energy drinks or green or black tea, opt for an alternative more often. You will see that it makes you feel just as alert.
How financially fit are you?
Besides a healthy life, you want a healthy pension. By staying aware of the pension market and react to it in a flexible way, we keep your pension in top condition. Do you already have a pension scheme with BeFrank? Then you can see how your pension is doing on your Personal Pension page. Here you will also find the most important updates. Do you not have a pension scheme with BeFrank yet? Ask your employer about the possibilities.