Cycling UK Forum

Thanls for the link/vid.

Coffee head here, including on the bike.
I'd need some serious persuading that it is a toxin.

The story on coffee and caffeine seems to swing up and down all the time though I do believe that lately there's more positive stuff.

Sweep wrote: ↑26 Dec 2021, 9:32amMy antennae tend to twitch at the term dietician - it's used by a fair few dodgy folks

I think dietitian is a protected job title, like doctor. Nutritionist isn't, though.

DevonDamo wrote: ↑26 Dec 2021, 9:55amThe best I could find on YouTube is the following.


What I took away from the BBC documentary was that caffeine and coffee have quite a lot of positives for the body, but that the way they work is essentially the same as any other addictive drug - i.e. once you've developed a tolerance to a certain dose, you'll need that dose from then on just to be where you previously were (pre-addiction) without taking it.

If it's addictive, and the effect wears off, that's not really very positive.

I'm not sure I buy that adenosine argument.

I have a heart arrhythmia, and one ploy they use to get your heart back into normal rhythm is to stop your heart completely in the hope that it will return to normal when it restarts, just like switching a crashed computer off and back on again. The way they stop your heart is with a large dose of adenosine, and it's never made me feel sleepy even in doses that are obviously a lot larger than natural ones.

Sweep wrote: ↑26 Dec 2021, 10:31amThe story on coffee and caffeine seems to swing up and down all the time though I do believe that lately there's more positive stuff.

Caffeine has long had a reputation for causing/aggravating arrhythmia, but more recently, multiple large studies have shown that caffeine doesn’t cause AF, and that 3-5 cups of coffee a day reduces AF burden by ~15%. (Case, Mandrola, Zinn: The Haywire Heart, 2017)
When I was diagnosed with AF in 2012 they told me that quitting caffiene would help, but I was already drinking decaff, although when I had an ablation in 2015 I was told that I had to stop all caffiene, including decaff, in the days leading up to the ablation.

axel_knutt wrote: ↑26 Dec 2021, 12:46pm
I think dietitian is a protected job title, like doctor. Nutritionist isn't, though.

Thanks - maybe it was nutritionist I was thinking of - will re-tune my antennae.
Will keep brewing my espressos - including round the back of churches on my longer rides.

Said dietitian worked with me at a west London hospital and had a badge and a white coat and everything !

Sweep wrote: ↑26 Dec 2021, 9:32am

simonineaston wrote: ↑25 Dec 2021, 4:33pm That reminds me of a remark a dietitian friend of mine made once, to wit the reason coffee fizzes up your system is 'cos it's a toxin and our clever bodies recognise it as such and speed things up in order to get rid of asap !!

is that really the case?

No.

It's not at all clear that coffee is toxic.

There's no general purpose toxin detecting system in the human body. There are lots of different physiological processes and metabolic pathways that can join in.

I don't know of any relevant "speeding up" process.

Human exposure to coffee is only a few centuries old and far too short for much adaptive evolution.

Jonathan

Sweep wrote: ↑26 Dec 2021, 9:32amMy antennae tend to twitch at the term dietician - it's used by a fair few dodgy folks - i don't know your friend of course.

I'm not too bothered about the term, and I've worked with some excellent dieticians.

But there's a vast amount of discussion of food and drink and metabolism that bears little relation to what's actually known to be true. Unfortunately that includes this forum.

Gathering evidence about the effects of diet is very very difficult. But even when that is the case if any of us make an assertion we should expect to be asked to provide the evidence.

Jonathan

A good report in New Scientist said .Ignore reports. There are so many variables its hard to attribute to a source.Eat sensibly and enjoy.
"Let food be thy medicine"

briansnail wrote: ↑18 Feb 2022, 2:59pm A good report in New Scientist said .Ignore reports. There are so many variables its hard to attribute to a source.Eat sensibly and enjoy.
"Let food be thy medicine"

Sound advice. A little of what you fancy does you good. Always worked for me.

briansnail wrote: ↑18 Feb 2022, 2:59pm A good report in New Scientist said .Ignore reports. There are so many variables its hard to attribute to a source.Eat sensibly and enjoy.
"Let food be thy medicine"

are you referring to the report also reported here?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60429955

I'm liking that nice Tim Spector - he's my favourite dietician
ps he has coffee for breakfast

I used to have a big breakfast, but I'm pretty much a coffee only man till around 11am. Seems to work well for me