Freshly brewed coffee is my beverage of choice. For some reason, the caffeine is the jolt I need to wake up and keep on going through my day. It also is the drink that makes food taste better over sodas, milk, tea or water. However, my favorite beverage also may have a disappointing flaw that has come to my attention for possibly being the reason coffee drinking may lead to the need for more sweets since there is a link between caffeine and sugar cravings.
According to the research, caffeinated coffee diminishes how your mouth perceives sweets. Apparently, its caffeine can block receptors for a chemical called adenosine to determine how your taste buds interpret taste. The direct consequence of this change in the messaging to the taste buds is due to the caffeine. It seems as though regular coffee or any caffeinated beverage increases the desire for sweets for as long as that taste and its aftermath remains in your mouth.
I know what you’re thinking, what difference would a switch to decaffeinated coffee make in your relationship to sweets? Stick with me here, but you may have a greater chance of avoiding the need for sweets. After all, decaffeinated coffee or drinks won’t have dulling adenosine to compensate for that same perception in taste as when drinking caffeinated coffee and beverages.
Stay with me now because what was fascinating about this particular study was the researchers added 200 milligrams of caffeine in one group testing decaffeinated coffee. This was the amount of stimulant needed to replicate realistic levels of daily caffeine. On the other hand, they gave the second group plain decaffeinated coffee. However, both control groups were given sugar for the coffee as well. What they observed was the group given regular coffee considered it less sweet than the other control group with decaffeinated.
It is only human nature to want to pin the blame on something other than our own behavior for gaining weight when overindulging our sweet tooth. Fortunately now, at least we can feel somewhat relieved that our coffee could have played a part in the problem with this known link between caffeine and sugar cravings.
