Coffee and Cortisol: What the Research Actually Shows

Social media says your morning coffee spikes cortisol, drives fat gain and wrecks your hormones. But most of those claims come from studies using doses of 3 to 6 mg of caffeine per kilo, or up to 800 mg in one hit. In this round table, Dr Cliff Harvey sits down with HPI nutritionists Luke Gabites and Choong Kwan to look at what the research actually shows, and how they use coffee/caffiene with their own clients. In this episode we cover: Why "coffee spikes cortisol" is a surface-level read of the research The doses used in caffeine studies versus a normal couple of cups Habituation: why regular coffee drinkers show little cortisol response Adrenaline, adenosine and what actually makes you feel alert Cortisol, "cortisol belly" and fat gain: what the evidence supports When caffeine is a real problem: high-stress clients, energy drinks and sleep Practical guidelines: timing, cups per day, double shots and green tea Coffee and iron absorption for plant-based eaters Chapters 00:00 Intro and the team 01:41 Coffee, cortisol and the social media claims 03:37 Fat gain, hormones and crashes: the claims 04:17 Why a cortisol rise is partly the point 06:16 What the research doses really are 10:11 Dose in the real world: 800 mg is eight cups 11:55 Adrenaline first, cortisol later, and habituation 15:23 Athletes versus high-stress type A clients 19:06 Energy drinks, exercise and the rugby study 22:07 Half-life, timing and hidden calories in coffee 24:08 The latte client: does cortisol cause fat gain? 26:51 Cortisol belly and stress eating 30:05 The bigger stressors in people's lives 33:31 Individual responses and the holistic view 35:33 Practical caffeine guidelines 41:03 Green tea, L-theanine and iron absorption 42:22 Wrap-up and Nutripaedia About the team Dr Cliff Harvey is a clinical nutritionist, researcher and founder of the Holistic Performance Institute. Choong Kwan is a Registered Clinical Nutritionist, sports nutritionist and strength and conditioning coach based in Auckland. He helps time-poor parents and high performers build strong, healthy bodies without letting training and nutrition take over their lives. Find him at iamchoong.com . Luke Gabites is a Registered Clinical Nutritionist and Sports Nutritionist at Planted Nutrition in Auckland. Mentioned in this episode Nutripaedia living review: Caffeine and Cortisol (HPI members) - https://holisticperformance.thinkific.com/courses/take/nutripaedia/audio/76943502-caffeine-cortisol Beaven et al. (2008), caffeine dose and cortisol in rugby league players: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18458357/ Dr Lauren Colenso-Semple on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drlaurencs1/ Choong Kwan: https://www.iamchoong.com/ Luke Gabites, Planted Nutrition: https://plantednutrition.nz HPI links Roadmap: https://

Coffee and Cortisol: What the Research Actually Shows | HPI Team