Drinking coffee before breakfast: Wise or risky?

For many, waking up in the morning means the next one or two hours is alone time with themselves. While some prefer to get work done, some prefer to laze around scrolling, playing with pets or just simple spending quality time with family. And what remains constant throughout, the day’s first cup of coffee. This coffee is often consumed empty stomach and first thing in the morning, although its taste depends on the way one likes to drink it – either with milk or raw. However, the question now arises if drinking coffee in an empty stomach is healthy for the body or not?

Should you drink coffee first thing in the morning?

To answer this question, an average healthy person may consume the drink on an empty stomach. However if one starts feeling nauseous, anxious, have bouts of acidity then it is better to skip it because it means that the body is not accepting coffee in the morning. In such cases, it is best to drink coffee along with your breakfast or perhaps after.

While drinking coffee in the morning gives you an energy boost and may improve concentration, there are records of coffee interfering with the digestive system causing heart burns and acidity, or spiking the glucose levels or resulting in constipation. However, the effect of drinking coffee in different bodies is different and thus one cannot really generalise the effects. Thus, for those a hot cup of morning coffee works out, may continue drinking it as required; and for those it starts giving trouble to the body, should look at other time of the day for the consumption of their favourite beverage.

Moreover, while coffee doesn’t directly cause any distress, it may trigger the body in ways that it goes into distress. In fact according to a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2020, a conclusion was reached where morning coffee increased blood glucose and insulin. Thus, to avoid aggravation of already existing problems, one should ideally avoid having it on empty stomach.

If you want to drink coffee in the morning, then the ideal steps might be to drink some water after waking up, having a light breakfast avoiding high calories and consuming coffee along with it or after. 

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