Author: Dr. Raman Gautam

Who not loves Coffee, tea or other caffeinated beverages? It is an inseparable part of our everyday routine; and the tempting flavours, tastes often makes it difficult to resist them. Similarly, many women across the world consume several caffeinated beverages whether they are desiring to conceive or pregnant. Surprisingly, Finland has the highest coffee consumption of 12.0/kg/person/year1.
But do this really affect? There has been number of opinions on this. However, given the growing concern of subfecundity and infertility in public health makes us to think about this.
On an average, a cup of coffee contains about 100mg of caffeine, but it can change depending on type of coffee beans used and how the coffee is prepared.
According to food standards Australia and New Zealand2, here is the caffeine content of some food and drinks –

Food	Caffeine content
Espresso	145 mg/50 mL cup
Formulated caffeinated beverages or ‘ Energy’ Drinks	80 mg/250 mL can
Instant coffee (1 teaspoon/cup)	80 mg/250 mL cup
Black tea	50 mg/250 mL cup
Coca Cola	48.75 mg/375 mL can
Milk chocolate	10 mg/50g bar

In the human body, caffeine affects the various physiological processes. It alters the blood levels of catecholamines and increases intracellular concentration of cyclic AMP. It is believed to affect reproductive system through changes in endogenous hormone levels that in turn effects on ovarian function/s1. A study conducted from 2005 – 2007 in United Sates has found numerous associations between caffeine intake and reproductive hormone levels3. The reason stated behind this is the common metabolism pathway of caffeine and estradiol (reproductive hormone). These both are metabolized by the hepatic enzyme CYP1A, so possibly this pathway can lead caffeine to interfere with estradiol levels. Also, another responsible factor is the increased affinity of compounds such as isoflavonoids, (which are numerously present in coffee) for oestrogen receptors. Consequently, change/s in hormone levels might impact on the menstrual cycle. However, according to the studies published in Journal of Caffeine Research in 2011 states no effect of caffeine intake on men and women receiving fertility treatment/s4, whereas some studies has seen the caffeine intake association on hCG and oestrogen5. Considering this, there is still a need for further studies to investigate the caffeine consumption and natural fertility.

 

 

REFERENCES:
1-Lyngsø, J., Ramlau-Hansen, C. H., Bay, B., Ingerslev, H. J., Hulman, A., & Kesmodel, U. S. (2017). Association between coffee or caffeine consumption and fecundity and fertility: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Clinical epidemiology, 9, 699–719. doi:10.2147/CLEP.S146496

2-Food standards Australia and New Zealand (2019). Caffeine. Retrieved from http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/generalissues/Pages/Caffeine.aspx

3–Schliep, K. C., Schisterman, E. F., Mumford, S. L., Pollack, A. Z., Zhang, C., Ye, A., … & Wactawski-Wende, J. (2012). Caffeinated beverage intake and reproductive hormones among premenopausal women in the BioCycle Study. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 95(2), 488–497. doi:10.3945/ajcn.111.021287

4- Choi, J. H., Ryan, L. M., Cramer, D. W., Hornstein, M. D., & Missmer, S. A. (2011). Effects of caffeine consumption by women and men on the outcome of in vitro fertilization. Journal of caffeine research, 1(1), 29-34.

5- Lawson, C. C., LeMasters, G. K., Levin, L. S., & Liu, J. H. (2002). Pregnancy hormone metabolite patterns, pregnancy symptoms, and coffee consumption. American journal of epidemiology, 156(5), 428-437.

We never think of ‘food’ as ‘medicine’ unless we are aware of their therapeutic effects. The father of medicine, Hippocrates embraced this concept 2500 years ago by saying “Let food be thy medicine and the medicine be thy food”.This concept was further emphasised when fortification or enrichment of foods for various health benefits was considered so when foods are consumed on a regular basis as part of a varied diet, they provide the health benefits in addition to their nutrients and energy. This growing food category is now known as functional foods.

They blurred the distinction between foods and drugs. Although there is no universally accepted definition for these, the term & concept functional foods came from Japan in early 1980s in response to their growing health care costs. The functional foods may also include conventional foods such as grains or modified foods such as yogurt.

Here nature is also playing its part and provided us the clues to identify the foods what they are good for such as walnuts having two hemispheres tells us these are good for brain. Sliced tomatoes resemble the heart chambers, so are helpful in reducing cardiovascular risk. Carrots are good for eyes and sliced carrots mimics the picture of an iris and pupil to indicate they are good for eyes. This list goes on such as celery for bones or avocados for uterus.

There are also foods that can make us slimmer, smarter, whitens our teeth or decrease our stress. The modern concept of different teas such as peppermint tea, chamomile tea is nothing less than functional foods where these can help in homeostasis of ayurvedic body pillars such as ‘vata’, ‘pitta’ or ‘kapha’. In this, the coolness of chamomile can help to cool the aggravating pitta or peppermint tea can refresh the kapha.

Therefore, functional foods always exist. These are not just invented.

 

 

References

Hasler, C. M. (2002). Functional foods: benefits, concerns and challenges—a position paper from the American Council on Science and Health. The Journal of nutrition, 132(12), 3772-3781. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/132.12.3772

Devine, C., & Jensen, W. K. (2004). Functional Foods. Encyclopaedia of meat sciences, 1, 492-499. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-384731-7.00172-0

Vainio, H., & Mutanen, M. (2000). Functional foods—blurring the distinction between food and medicine. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 178-180. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.528