I started drinking coffee at a very young age. My grandma used to scold me saying that I would never grow past 5 feet (I grew to be 5’4”, so look at me now Grams). Coffee has become such a normal part of my everyday cycle that when I don’t have a cup, my whole day feels incomplete and off balance. Others have come to notice my coffee drinking habits, and it usually sparks a conversation. If someone who isn’t an advanced coffee drinker (like myself) witnesses me drinking a cup of coffee in the afternoon, they are shocked to hear that I can sleep like a baby that night because when they drink coffee later in the day, they can’t sleep at all. There are people who think that I’m smart for drinking all of this coffee because it could help to control my weight. Sometimes when I drink a lot of coffee in the morning, people think that I’m fighting a nasty hangover because coffee is a known cure. But is any of this true? I had to do some digging.

Upon my research, I found the following fallacies;

Fallacy 1: A cup of afternoon coffee will cause insomnia.

The body quickly absorbs and gets rid of caffeine. It has a relatively short life and is mainly processed through the liver. About 75% of the caffeine that you consume is gone between 8-10 hours. So for most people, drinking a couple cups of coffee in the morning won’t interfere with their beauty sleep. Saying that, drinking coffee later in the day can affect some people, depending on the amount of caffeine they are used to consuming.  

Fallacy 2: Coffee will stunt your growth.

There is no scientific proof that drinking coffee will stop you from growing. No one knows where this rumor came from; I have a theory that parents started it because they didn’t want to deal with their children with caffeine in their systems.

Fallacy 3: A cup of coffee will sober you up after drinking.

The idea that drinking a cup of coffee after a long night of consuming alcohol will sober you up, is completely false and dangerous. Yes, it may be able to make an intoxicated person more alert, but a study done by The American Psychological Association found that coffee does not reverse the cognitive impact of alcohol. The report stated: “People who have consumed both alcohol and caffeine may feel awake and competent enough to handle potentially harmful situations, such as driving while intoxicated or placing themselves in dangerous social situations.”

Fallacy 3: Coffee will help you lose weight.

Sadly, this is a myth. I used to think that because coffee stems from a bean, that it would help with my digestion; therefore help me to balance my weight. Studies show that caffeine can slightly increase one’s metabolism (emphasis on the slightly) but not enough to directly impact your diet.  

While researching coffee myths, I found that there are many fallacies about coffee; these are just the few that caught my attention.  I’ll be honest, finding out that drinking coffee didn’t help me lose weight was disappointing (being the consistent coffee drinker that I am), and now I have to find another factor in my life to blame for my terrible sleeping habits.