Coffee is not recommended for these people!

For better work

Every weekday morning

I'll have a cup of coffee.

Welcome a beautiful day

WeChat suddenly popped up a message from my coffee partner

"Long-term coffee drinking will lead to increased cortisol, making it increasingly difficult to lose belly fat"

Looking down

That Moment

I feel really sorry for the big brother at the beginning.

No more talking, let’s do one more issue!

↓ Highlight the key points↓

(Most people) send it after get off work

01What is cortisol?

Since it is said online that the culprit for why it is increasingly difficult to lose belly fat is "increased cortisol", let's first clarify what cortisol is.

Cortisol is a stress hormone secreted by the adrenal glands when our brain responds to stress .

▲Cortisol, commonly known as the "stress hormone"

It plays a role in regulating the body's sleep, managing how the body uses carbohydrates, fats and proteins, reducing inflammation, and controlling blood pressure.

Too low cortisol levels can lead to fatigue, depression, low blood pressure and low blood sugar , etc.

Excessive cortisol levels can indeed make you fat.

It increases hunger and stimulates appetite, making people want to eat high-fat, high-sugar, and high-salt foods, thereby storing a lot of fat and leading to obesity.

It may cause problems such as high blood pressure, central obesity and osteoporosis .

Furthermore, cortisol-induced obesity can lead to the redistribution of fat.

It doesn't just appear on the belly, but fat accumulates all over the torso and face, making the back thicker, the waistline larger, the face rounder, and causing a moon face and buffalo hump , but it usually has little effect on the arms and legs.

▲Central obesity (Source: Tencent Medical Dictionary)

Friends with apple-shaped bodies, don’t panic when you see this!

In fact, most of the obesity among ordinary people is simple obesity , which has nothing to do with morbid obesity caused by excessive cortisol.

▲Simple obesity (Source: Tencent Medical Dictionary)

02What is the relationship between cortisol and coffee?

The caffeine in coffee can stimulate our central nervous system, improve alertness and concentration, enhance metabolism and reduce fatigue.

Caffeine can make us no longer sleepy when working, and it also stimulates the production of cortisol in the body.

However, this stimulation is very limited.

Studies have shown that drinking less than 3 cups of coffee a day has very little effect on increasing the amount of cortisol in the body and is unlikely to cause harm to the body.

Only if you drink coffee like water, more than 9 cups a day, and your body is under high concentration of caffeine for a long time, will it have a significant impact on the secretion of cortisol.

It is irresponsible to talk about toxicity without considering the dosage.

Regardless of whether you drink so much coffee every day, you should know that cortisol itself is not a terrible thing.

Under normal circumstances, cortisol helps regulate stress, break down fat, stabilize blood pressure, fight inflammation, help us stimulate more energy, and make us more focused.

Moreover, cortisol secretion is diurnal, with the highest cortisol level around 8 am and then decreasing in the afternoon, reaching the lowest point around 2 am.

If we are really worried, we can avoid the peak of cortisol levels and refuse the 8 a.m. coffee. We can sit at our workstations at 10 a.m. and drink it slowly.

Instead of worrying about drinking coffee causing an increase in cortisol and a bigger belly,

What you should consider more is that maybe it’s because you are not drinking black coffee, but coffee with milk, sugar, or “special latte” with coconut or cherry flavor, which leads to increased calorie intake and weight gain.

▲Image source: Xiaohongshu user "M MIN Manman"

03What are the benefits of drinking coffee?

Workers with taste know that drinking coffee is a healthy lifestyle.

The premise is that you are not drinking instant coffee or flavored latte.

The following benefits only apply to black coffee ground from coffee beans or black coffee with pure milk :

Drinking coffee can not only relieve fatigue , but also protect the health of the brain and heart , reduce the risk of various cancers, inhibit tumor growth, and reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, cardiovascular disease, and gallstones.

It can also promote gastrointestinal motility and improve the transportation and transformation function of the spleen and stomach. Therefore, when you are constipated, in addition to eating more vegetables and fruits, you can also choose to drink "coffee".

Caffeine also has a certain effect of accelerating metabolism . Drinking coffee can improve endurance and strength during exercise, making people feel less tired, thereby consuming more calories during exercise, helping to reduce body fat and reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.

In addition, when grinding and tasting coffee (slacking off), we can withdraw from the busy work, feel the peace and beauty of life, let the body secrete happy hormones, and improve our mood .

04Who is not recommended to drink coffee?

First of all, people who don’t drink coffee are not recommended to drink coffee . This is not nonsense.

Some people don’t like coffee, so they don’t need to force themselves to drink it just because it can refresh them and is good for the body. This may very likely have the opposite effect.

People who like to drink coffee are not recommended to drink it in the following situations:

• Suffering from heart disease or endocrine disease;
• When you have a fever or infection;
• Pregnancy, pregnancy preparation and breastfeeding.

As for those who are not yet adults, such as high school students who need coffee to stay awake, they can actually drink coffee. As long as the body can tolerate caffeine, drinking it in moderation is good for health.

If you have trouble sleeping after drinking coffee, it may be because you drink it at the wrong time. Usually, caffeine takes 4 to 6 hours to metabolize , so drinking coffee around 2 pm will not have much impact on your sleep.

If you really can't sleep, you can try locking your phone, which is very effective.

Source: "Peking University Shenzhen Hospital" WeChat official account, Tencent Medical Dictionary, Shenzhen Health Commission

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