Nothing starts a day off better than a fresh cup of coffee. As a frequent coffee drinker I’ve been settled into this ritual for a few years now but standing at only 5’6 I wondered
if this habit of mine had anything to do with my height. For as long as I can remember people always told me that coffee stunted people’s growth and because of that you should wait until your an adult to drink it. Could drinking coffee at an early age stunted my height? I really didn’t know, so I thought it’s time to find out.
Coffee’s relationship with stunting kids growth all starts with the amount of caffeine in that cup of coffee. In a single cup of an 8 ounce cup of coffee there is anywhere between 80-135 mg of caffeine, that is more than any other energy drink. (http://www.math.utah.edu) That’s a lot of caffeine and back when they though caffeine was a risk factor for osteoporosis, it’s very easy to see where this claim came from. Osteoporosis is a disease that causes bones to become weak and brittle. This occurs when the creation of new bone doesn’t keep up with the removal of old bone.(http://www.mayoclinic.org) Looking at the symptoms of that it’s obvious why people said that. If caffeine cause osteoporosis, and coffee is one of the most caffeinated drinks, it only makes sense that coffee makes all aged bones weak causing them to not grow properly. It makes so much sense I have to be correct, right?
Actually no, I’m not right at all. The claim that caffeine causes osteoporosis has been proven to be a type 2 error on many levels and as of recent been rejected by multiple studies. According to ClevelandClinic.org caffeine has absolutely no affect on men with os
teoporosis and the affect with women is still under speculation. Rheumatologist, Johnny Su, stated “While several studies have shown those relationships, the data overall are not entirely conclusive”. Even with these statistics still up in the air, doctors and scientist can still agree on one thing, its fine in moderation. Su also stated “If you drink those beverages in low amount – less than 400 milligrams – that’s probably OK”. Less than four hundred milligrams just means less than four cups of coffee a day and since the average female only drinks 1.9 cup
s a day, this shouldn’t be very difficult (www.zagat.com).
More evidence to show that coffee doesn’t stunt growth can be seen in a study that tracked 81 adolescents. The study was done by the Penn State Young Women’s Health Study in 1998. They put the adolescents into three groups, each group with a different level of caffeine intake per day. Their results found that there was no difference in body bone mineral gain during the ages 12 to 18 or of hip bone density at age 18 with all three groups. They concluded that dietary caffeine levels didn’t effect bone gain or hip bone density. This research can be further looked at here, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
The study overall was carried out very well but there are some things to point out. The study was observational and not a double blind placebo since they were assigned to each group and a specific type of person was selected. Since only white females were tested an argument could be made that caffeine only doesn’t effect that type of person. However we can prove that wrong because of Su’s studies that show caffeine has no affect on men’s bones and the affects on women’s bones are still under speculation. The study’s high caffeine group had a mean of 77 m
gs a day which is much lower than the 400 mg amount that Su said women shouldn’t go over. So we still have no hard evidence about what occurs when over 400 mgs is consumed by women.
Looking at this data it seems safe to say that caffeine has no effect on the bones, especially in moderation. If a kid wants to have a cup of coffee or two, let them, it’s not affecting their growth. We believe that the only reason that myth came about was because of the connections to osteoporosis. With various new findings showing that caffeine(especially in moderation) can’t be proven to be linked to osteoporosis, there is absolutely no reason to even think caffeine stunts growth. So I guess my coffee drinking habitats as a teenager had nothing to do with my height after all. Looks like I’m going to have to keep on sipping.
Pictures
“Coffee Consumption Statistics.” Zagat. Web. 21 Oct. 2015. – https://www.zagat.com/coffee-trends
http://www.dailytimesgazette.com/coffee-offers-more-benefits-than-just-keeping-you-awake/21937/
Bibliography
“Coffee Consumption Statistics.” Zagat. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
“Effects of Caffeine.” Effects of Caffeine. University of Delaware, 1 Oct. 2011. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
“How Much Caffeine in Drinks.” University of Utah. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
Lloyd, T., NJ Rollings, K. Kieselhorst, DF Eggli, and E. Mauger. “Dietary Caffeine Intake Is Not Correlated with Adolescent Bone Gain.” National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 17 Oct. 1998. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
O’Connor, Anahad. “The Claim: Drinking Coffee Can Stunt a Child’s Growth.” The New York Times, 18 Oct. 2005. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
“Osteoporosis.” Diseases and Conditions. Mayo Clinic, 13 Dec. 2014. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
“Sodas, Tea and Coffee: Which Can Lower Your Bone Density?” Health Essentials. Cleveland Clinic, 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.