It's a Myth: There's No Evidence That Coffee Stunts Kids' Growth

[BrianB]

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/scie...ts-kids-growth

Modern concerns about coffee' health effects in the U.S. can be traced to C.W. Post, an 1800s-era food manufacturer most well known for pioneering the field of breakfast cereal. He also invented a grain-based breakfast beverage called Postum, advertised as a caffeine-free coffee alternative, that was popular through the 1960s (and is still in production).

More on the Postum ads here.

Brian

[ganzfeld]

I probably had enough Postum to stunt my growth.

[barbrainey]

I was told as a kid that it is cigarettes, not coffee, that stunts children's growth. Children usually are not allowed coffee because of the high caffeine content. I suppose coffee has more caffeine than chocolate, since a lot of children eat chocolate. I was crazy about chocolate as a kid.

I drink coffee once a day--at breakfast--to wake myself up. I usually don't drink it in the evening since it might cause me to have difficulty getting to sleep at night.

I've never smoked though.

Barb Rainey

[Avril]

Coffee has exponentially more caffeine than coffee.

I'm not supposed to have caffeine for medical reasons. This is primarily for the digestive tract, but if I have too much by accident (such as once when I ordered a frappuccino from Starbucks and it had coffee in it, and I didn't know, because not all of them do), I have a serious reaction to it--heart pounding, cold sweats, etc. I have to consciously remind myself that it's only the caffeine and I do not need to visit an ER. It is not just being jittery--it's being hopped up, high, and it's quite scary.

Now, I can have one of those mini cans of cola (about 8 ounces), or most of a cup of tea (but not the whole thing). No coffee really at all. But chocolate? As much as I want. Most of the stimulant in chocolate is theobromine.

I am pointing all of this out because children, being smaller, would be much more sensitive to the effects of caffeine. I have to wonder if some parents observed the impact on their children and worried about it doing them harm.

You also have to consider that the era of worry about caffeine was just after people realized that doping babies with morphine is probably not a good idea. Perhaps the pendulum swung farther than it needed to swing.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by Avril

Coffee has exponentially more caffeine than coffee.

Is this some sort of a Zen pronouncement?

[Avril]

Than chocolate. Sorry.

ETA: To carry over from another thread: LAM! I made a mistake!

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by Avril

Than chocolate. Sorry.

I thought so - it just seemed so curious as stated that I had to have a little fun with it.