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hessenwolf

Apparently, caffeine makes it harder to intake iron.

http://fscn.cfans.umn.edu/prod/groups/cfans/@pub/@cfans/@fsc...

And anaemia, stemming from lack of iron, leads to fatigue and irritability, which both suck balls for coding.

edit: What did we learn in the article?

1. 140 cups will kill me.

2. Up to six cups a day will result in higher or lower mortality, depending on the study.

3. A study has shown that caffeine may lead to higher bad cholesterol.

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Lack of iron is a serious problem, but many people (particularly men) may have too much (even if they don't have hemochromatosis). Iron depletion has been hypothesized as the reason that blood donation may be good for your heart, although the evidence is still inconclusive. At the very least, it's not something everyone needs to be concerned about.

Random biased selection of sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12430669 - A historical cohort study of the effect of lowering body iron through blood donation on incident cardiac events.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18619522 - Iron in arterial plaque: modifiable risk factor for atherosclerosis.

This article doesn't make it clear, but caffeine isn't the thing in coffee that raises cholesterol. That's cafestol, and it's captured by paper filters. So coffee made with a standard auto-dripper, or by pourover, don't have that.

As an avid french press user, I have to shove my head the sand every time I see this.

What's the use of a longer life if you can't have coffee the way you enjoy it?

Get thee an Aeropress. Cheap, paper filters, 5 second cleanup, silly delicious output.

The phrase "I can't go back to drip, french press is so smooth" will seem laughable. :)

Agreed, never going back to french press.

I just wish that I could make more coffee at a time with it, but I understand why I can't.

It's astounding how smooth aeropress coffee is, though.

Compared to french press, any filtered coffee is going to be smooth. I recommend you look into manual pourover brewers. The Chemex (my daily brewer) comes in sizes up 50oz.

>> A study has shown that caffeine may lead to higher bad cholesterol.

I don't believe that is true. The study in question shows that unfiltered coffee may lead to higher bad cholesterol. It has nothing to do with caffeine. Decaffeinated coffee has the same issue.

I don't have anemia, but simply low iron (around 20 in ferritin level, recently it been up to 50), and I did read that coffee had an impact on low iron, and I do start believe this might be my problem.

I don't know the exact levels, but I was diagnosed with low iron in my teen years. The same span of time where I was obsessing over MMOs and mountain dew / red bull. I consume maybe one energy drink per month now, and have stable iron levels, so I also wonder if those are related.

Has your diet shifted?

I drink a lot of coffee and when I donated blood last, the person testing my iron levels remarked that it was a good thing I was giving blood, as the level was nice and high (they weren't remarking on my health, just on the high iron level). I don't take any supplements or eat a ridiculous amount of red meats and such, but I have a diet that includes some amount of meat, vegetables that are good sources of iron and breakfast cereal that is fortified with iron.

I'll drink six cups a day and find out which study is right.

Holy shit. No wonder I feel so much better after a steak.

> And anaemia, stemming from lack of iron, leads to fatigue and irritability, which both suck balls for coding.

What if you take vitamins & minerals?

My bias tells me that it's probably better to eat a healthy varied diet; get exercise; expose yourself to a bit of direct sunlight (10 minutes per day) but not too much; have good sleep hygiene; have good work habits; and so on.

These steps build resiliance against mild mental health problems and increase physical health.

I don't have any evidence and I especially don't want to be judgemental about it.

This is a direct benefit of coffee (along with donating blood) in my book.

The chances of you developing anaemia because of coffee are dim.

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