Does Coffee Really Stunt your Growth?
Coffee. One of the world’s most consumed beverages and the singular reason Starbucks is still standing. Apart from being practically everyone who has a job’s best friend, coffee in recent times has seen a boom in production and consumption everywhere, even in former “tea strongholds”.
But for some, there is one thing that is stopping them from converting to coffee. That thing is the slanderous rumour on the name of coffee: “Coffee stunts your growth.”
For years, there has been a ongoing debate about the world’s largest agricultural commodity, and its role in the growth of children especially.
Scientists have many different ideas on the matter, but for the most part- most agree that coffee doesn’t actually stunt your growth. And they have scientific data to back it up. A lot (which I won’t go into, too boring…)
But still: if the answer among Bill Nye the Science Guys all over the world is no, then where are the rumours rooted in.
While it could be the doing of the parents who really really don’t like the idea of there 12 year old drinking three lattes a day, the more likely explanation is far deeper.
Caffeine in coffee was said to absorb calcium. This means, in effect, that the more coffee you drink, the more calcium is absorbed, limiting the amount of calcium that helps with bone growth.
But is this actually true? While, as it turns out, I did some digging and this is true, I guess, to some extent. For the caffeine to actually absorb the calcium and hinder bone structure, you’d have to be drinking a lot of coffee. I mean a lot.
I’m talking 10+ mugs a day.
And if you were, all I have to say is you might have some bigger problems than the inhibition of height.
Conclusively, coffee does not stunt your growth unless you consume it hazardously, and even then, it may do little or maybe nothing to stop you height.
