You just got 4 hours of sleep last night, your consciousness is awake, but your body hasn’t responded yet…
You started a morning at 5:30 AM, with a quick exercise then fed your cats. You came downstairs to set up your baby’s porridge and steam rice for you and your husband. The reason for being this early was that the slow cooker takes around 4 hours to cook porridge properly, as you wanted him to have brunch at 10 AM. You didn’t want to have breakfast outside, there were leftovers from last night’s dinner.
Everything was set, you came upstairs, had a quick hair wash and hair dry. Claude’s quota is resetting at 8 AM today, so you have to use the tokens before this time, as you shared the Claude account with your husband; he needs AI tokens for his job at 9 AM. So yes, you set up your prompt continuously, in between drying your hair, then did a quick accounting for your family finance sheet.
Time flew, 7:30 AM already. It was time to wake up your husband and your baby. You ran downstairs to make a quick soup, then came up to wake them up for breakfast.
By the time you finished your breakfast at 8:30, you already felt sleepy, but there’s no time to rest; you needed to get to the office immediately. On the way to work, you grabbed an Americano, and finally, you’re awakened. That’s when you realize the importance of caffeine.
What is caffeine?
Caffeine is a natural catalyst commonly found in plants, including tea, coffee, and cacao. The main purpose of caffeine is that it wakes up your brain and central nervous system, which helps you to stay awake. Caffeine is a very delicious drink, especially helpful in the morning, with many benefits for health if you use the appropriate amount.
What is the appropriate amount of caffeine?
400 milligrams (mg) of caffeine per day is the maximum amount, according to the FDA and EFSA. 400 mg of caffeine equals:
- 4 cups of standard brewed coffee (235 ml per cup)
- 5 to 6 shots of espresso
- 8 to 10 cups of black or green tea
If you’re having a cup of coffee every day, that’s actually great for your health and does not cause any side effects.
How long does the caffeine effect last?
It depends on each individual, actually; for me, it’s around 4 hours, which means that if I have a cup at 8 AM, then I should be fine until 12 noon. When I start to feel tired, then it’s already lunchtime.
Standardly, for most people, the caffeine effect can last from 3 to 5 hours. It means that if you have a mug of coffee with 100 mg of caffeine at 8 AM:
- By 1 PM (5 hours later), about 50 mg is still active.
- By 6 PM (10 hours later), about 25 mg is still floating around.
You don’t need 2 cups; only 1 cup every day is fine.
How often should I have a caffeine detox?
There is a thing called “adenosine”; it’s the chemical catalyst that exists in a living cell, which makes your body tired. Being tired is important, as it is an alert to you that your body needs to rest. The adenosine level stacks in your brain when awake. At night or during rest time, the adenosine triggers the resting and sleeping phase, which sends your body nicely to sleep.
The problem with having caffeine too often is that it blocks adenosine. Blocking adenosine causes multiple health problems, as adenosine is the key catalyst to boost collagen and elastin production, which protects your skin.
Loss of adenosine increases the chances of skin wrinkles, brown spots, and freckles. An appropriate level of adenosine also helps boost the body’s immune system in general. Also, high doses of caffeine can slightly dehydrate the body and also disrupt deep sleep.
That’s why I often have 2 days of caffeine detox weekly; which means that I would have caffeine from Monday to Friday, then give my body a rest on the weekend. With this frequency, I could also avoid caffeine tolerance—the stage when your body adapts to the caffeine effect, which means that you would need more and more caffeine.
Let’s look at the top benefits for health
Coffee benefits for health
Access to dietary antioxidants
Like I said above, coffee is actually one of the single largest sources of antioxidants, with chemical ingredients like polyphenols and chlorogenic acid. These compounds are important to clean up your body, neutralizing free radicals (unstable molecules) and reducing systemic inflammation, which is the root driver of many chronic diseases.
Metabolic and Type 2 Diabetes Protection
There are other things rather than caffeine in coffee plants. There is a strong link between coffee and metabolic health, by different studies.
According to data aggregated by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, people who drink an average of 3 to 4 cups of coffee per day have an approximate 25-30% lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes compared to those who drink little or none.
This works for both regular and decaf coffee. The study showed that the health benefits don’t come from the caffeine, but from the healthy antioxidants and minerals found in the coffee plant.
Brain Health and neuroprotection
Regular long-term coffee consumption is scientifically linked to a healthier aging brain.
- Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Studies show that mid-life coffee drinkers have up to a 65% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life.
- Parkinson’s: Caffeine helps protect the specific brain cells that produce dopamine, cutting the risk of Parkinson’s by roughly 30-60%.
Liver Defense
Having an appropriate amount of coffee is important to your liver. Regular consumption significantly lowers levels of harmful liver enzymes. Whether it’s filtering out everyday toxins or dealing with chronic stress, coffee drinkers show significantly lower rates of fatty liver, cirrhosis (permanent liver scarring), and a decreased rate of up to 40% for liver cancer.
Choices of morning coffee
For people need to lose weight (like me)
Plain coffee should be fine, but this is only recommended for people who can take a high amount of caffeine. I often choose Cold-brew or Americano (for a lighter day). I often choose size S, under 300 ml of coffee. This amount helps me to stay awake, but not too tired because of an exceeding amount of caffeine.
For normal people
Coffee mixed with milk is great, as you would have lots of options; for example:
- A hot cappuccino
- A cold latte
- Bạc xỉu (Vietnamese milk coffee)
- Sữa đá (Vietnamese condensed milk coffee).
Coffee is perfect in Vietnam (I mean, it’s literally perfect, in terms of plant growth therefore drink options). You probably won’t find any better area to have amazing coffee like when living in Vietnam, as the Vietnamese do lots of things to mix coffee into delicious drinks and meals.
If you’re getting bored of the old list of coffee as mentioned above, there are other choices:
- Coffee with coconuts (Cafe dừa – With or without milk)
- Salty coffee (Cà phê muối – Coffee, condensed milk, fresh milk, and salt)
- Coffee smoothie
Calories cautions
Coffee contains nearly zero calories, if you have plain coffee, it literally means that you could have as much as you want (but not more than 400 mg per day, to protect your health).
When mixing with milk, the calories and fats increase, A LOT. Check out the calories table as below.
| Coffee Drink | Typical Serving Size | Estimated Calories | Primary Ingredients |
| Black Coffee (Espresso, Americano, Filter) | 8 oz / 240 ml | 2 – 5 kcal | Water, coffee |
| Macchiato | 2 oz / 60 ml | 10 – 15 kcal | Espresso + a tiny dollop of milk foam |
| Cappuccino | 6 oz / 180 ml | 80 – 120 kcal | Espresso + equal parts steamed milk and thick foam |
| Flat White | 6 oz / 180 ml | 110 – 130 kcal | Espresso + steamed whole milk (microfoam) |
| Café Latte | 12 oz / 360 ml | 150 – 190 kcal | Espresso + a large amount of steamed whole milk |
| Caffè Mocha | 12 oz / 360 ml | 290 – 350 kcal | Espresso + steamed milk + chocolate syrup |
| Frappuccino / Blended Ice Coffee | 16 oz / 470 ml | 380 – 450+ kcal | Coffee + whole milk + heavy sweet syrups + whipped cream |
| Vietnamese Iced Coffee (Cà phê sữa đá) | 6 oz / 180 ml | 180 – 250 kcal | Strong robusta coffee + 2–3 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk |
| Cà phê Muối | 150 ml | 180 – 240 kcal | Coffee, condensed milk, whipped cream (salty) |
| Cà phê Cốt Dừa | 250 ml | 250 – 350 kcal | Coffee mixed with coconut milk, condensed milk (Usually served iced) |