Coffee: Friend or Foe?

Well... as I am sure many of you struggle with the same thing as me I may have a slight addiction to coffee or more specifically caffeine. I am currently sitting in a coffee shop on campus and am observing person after person putting the toxic liquid into their bodies and was thinking to my self; "Jack, is it worth it to buy a cup of coffee right now?" (For those of you who do not know, I refer to myself as Jack when conversing in my head. It helps me differentiate between who is talking, whether it be Carson or Jack). And then I got to thinking; not is it worth it financially but is it worth it to pollute my body with it? This is coming from a man (maybe boy) who worked at a coffee house for nearly two years, then another cafe for a few months and now make myself coffee every morning and am always looking for other opportunities to make coffee for a living. I Like Coffee! But how unhealthy is it for me to day after day pour that oil like substance down into my body for what? So now I want to dive into the effects of coffee and caffeine on the human body and how much damage is it really doing and is it worth it.
Among other things caffeine stimulates the central nervous system. It gives a short term benefit of heightened awareness and alertness and energy. However if you consume caffeine over a long period of time it can cause crashes to lower levels of energy requiring you to drink another cup and so on making it addictive and eventually resulting in exhaustion. Caffeine gets in the way of adenosine which is a chemical that typically calms a person down. Also through the raising of Cortisol, a coffee drinker has higher blood pressure. Cortisol is called the stress hormone because it regulates your stress levels. Coffee has also been associated with low birth weight, birth defects, miscarriages, premature birth, inability to conceive, and sluggish sperm. Along with may other things that caffeine does to your body, coffee whether it decaf or regular does many other things to your body. Coffee contributes to tooth decay and cavities and also decreases quality of sleep and aggravates stress in people who drink it every day.
On the flip side there are things that coffee and caffeine do for your body in a positive light. Caffeine increases intellectual activity when fatigued or bored. There are many illnesses that coffee has shown to help prevent including colon cancer, gallstones, and cirrhosis of the liver. Coffee also enhances performance and memory and is a great anti-depressant.
Experts say that an adult should have a moderate amount of caffeine per day which is about 200-300 mg. And now if you are wondering how much does that come out to in food and drink intake. If you have one normal sized cup of coffee in the morning (about 10 oz) then you have already reached your daily limit (230 mg). And now to leave you with some basic guidelines on when and how much do you drink. Do not drink coffee if you have mental illness or anxiety. Also do not intake high amounts of caffeine if you have high blood pressure, heart disease or high cholesterol.
All this to say I love coffee and because of this will not stop drinking it but just felt the need to share these facts with others so that they can at the very least make an informed decision about their addictions or next cup of coffee. So next time you pour yourself a glass, maybe you will think twice and think about the consequences of what you are about to put into your body.