Is your first instinct when getting out of bed to make yourself a coffee? Bad idea, says expert. You would actually have to wait 45 minutes after getting up to benefit from its benefits.
Why waiting before drinking your coffee is a good idea
Drinking coffee at 7:00 a.m. is a natural reflex for many of us. However, sipping it at this key moment is not recommended: “The best way to feel the effects of caffeine is not the way everyone does, which is when you wake up.“, explains Spanish nutritionist Pablo Ojeda.
And for good reason: when we wake up, our body naturally produces peaks of cortisol, the stress hormone which promotes alertness and alertness. The body is therefore already stimulated. Result, drink coffee as soon as you get up “has no real interest here: there is no need here to wake up more or have more energy”,
affirms the expert in the columns of the SurreyLive newspaper.
The dietitian advises instead to wait until our body wakes up naturally before introducing caffeine.
“Drink it half an hour or 45 minutes after waking up, not immediately“, he recommends.
Drinking your coffee too early could lead to overindulging in it during the day
But Pablo Ojeda is not the only one who thinks this way. Other specialists even recommend waiting 90 minutes after waking up before drinking your first cup, in order to avoid these famous cortisol peaks (especially in the morning, between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.).
“At these times, you already have cortisol circulating in your blood; so you don’t need to drink coffee“, estimates Dr. Marta González-Corró, doctor with a master’s degree in nutrition and food from the University of Barcelona.
She also wants to warn the most addicted: “If you love coffee and drink it at times when you naturally produce cortisol, you will produce less of it over time and become more reliant on coffee to stay alert and energetic.”
In other words, drinking coffee first thing in bed could encourage you to increase the doses you consume to feel the same effect.
Taken in moderation, caffeine has various benefits
As a reminder, “a healthy adult should not exceed 200 mg of caffeine at one time, and 400, throughout the day. In other words, a mug, a mug and a half of coffee at once, and four to five throughout the day. If we stick to this moderate consumption, all of the scientific literature considers that there are no deleterious effects on health.“, underlines Astrid Nehlig, research director at Inserm.
And if certain profiles must put coffee and its derivatives aside (such as pregnant women, people who have panic attacks, insomniacs, etc.), everyone else can benefit from its benefits. Consumed in moderation, caffeine can boost your concentration, reduce fatigue and provide beneficial antioxidants.
On the other hand, taken just after a meal, it can slow down the absorption of certain nutrients, such as iron or calcium. It can also accentuate heartburn in sensitive people.
One exception, however: before a sports session, coffee can improve endurance and somewhat reduce the feeling of effort.
In practice, therefore, there is no point in eliminating coffee, but it is better to wait for the right moment to get the maximum benefits!