Decaffeinating Eight Common Caffeine Myths: Part II
Worried about your caffeine consumption? Well, take a gander at these caffeine myths (and the underlying truths) before you toss out those sodas.
While it's true that moderation is a virtue in all things (even when it comes to coffee and chocolate), don't let everyday caffeine myths get your dander up or your spirits down. After all, most of them are just so much hooey. In Part I, we revealed the truth about four myths; in this installment, we'll take on four more.
Myth 1: Caffeine is seriously addictive, almost like cocaine or heroin
Give us a break. Oh, sure, many a caf-fiend will try to convince you of this, but there's no scientific evidence that caffeine is either addictive or can cause serious health or psychiatric effects. In fact, it's not all that hard to quit ingesting caffeine, and most people won't keep taking it once they've hit their limit anyway.
Here's an argument that really gives the lie to this caffeine myth: people don't usually abuse caffeine in an out-of-control way to get high. Nor are they likely to do so in a way that's so over-the-top that it harms themselves or the people around them. These things are part and parcel of real addictions.
Myth 2: Caffeine causes breast disease
For some reason, there's a rumor that coffee drinking and benign lumps in the breast (a.k.a. fibrocystic breast disease) are interconnected. Who knows how this one got started? In any case, there's no indication that there's really a link. Most gynecologists don't object to moderate caffeine intake among their patients.
Myth 3: Caffeine can decrease your bone density
Here's another interesting but odd caffeine myth that appears to have no basis in fact. Yes, caffeine is a diuretic; in other words, it'll make you urinate a lot. Yes, excessive urination may marginally increase calcium excretion, but there's no evidence that this can affect bone density in either men or women.
Myth 4: Caffeine causes cancer
The jury's still out on this one, but so far, there's no quantifiable link between caffeine and cancer of any kind. That said, one study has concluded that caffeine might facilitate the replication of cells with damaged DNA. Also, some caffeinated drinks, especially coffee, can contain known carcinogens in small quantities.
On the other hand, coffee (and presumably other caffeinated drinks) may reduce the risk of bladder cancer in people who also smoke. This is apparently because coffee drinkers urinate more (don't we just), flushing out the ol' bladder regularly. In this case, then, the caffeine myth may be entirely at odds with the real truth.
