[Wendy]

Wendy asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Does coffee stunt your growth?

What do you think?

[Bill.D.Katt.]

I think that if a prepubescent individual drank coffee it would have a very high chance of stunting his/her growth. Caffeine is a very powerful drug capable of seriously messing with a young persons hormones.

[Bored chemist]

Any evidence for this?
"Caffeine is a very powerful drug capable of seriously messing with a young persons hormones."

It seems very unlikely to me given the number of children (like me) who grew up drinking cola and coffee.

[Geezer]

It seems very unlikely to me given the number of children (like me) who grew up drinking cola and coffee.

I strongly disagree BC. Between tea and coffee, I've probably been consuming large amounts of the stuff since I was about five years old. Obviously, caffeine limited my height to 72 inches.

[Meathamper]

Well the research is either saying coffee can stunt growth by making calcium absorbtion near difficult or that it does nothing of the sort. Being a young coffee addict I'll just believe the research that says otherwise.

[SteveFish]

Meathamper:

There may be some research that shows that caffeine affects calcium absorption, but is there any evidence that it actually has an affect on growth. I would appreciate any links to actual research on these topics that you may have.

Steve

[AlphaPiRho]

quoted from
newbielink:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/18/health/18real.html [nonactive]

"it stunts their growth. Or at least according to the old wives' tale generations of children have grown up hearing.  The oonly problem, it seems, is that after decades of research on the physiolgical results of coffee consumption, there is no evidence that it has any effect on height."

From prior knowledge coffee contains micro-traces of alkaline acid and hydrogen, these elements are also found to be in the same amount as the apple, red bull, monster, and citric fruits.  So if coffee stunts growth then energy drinks would along with some of the most common nutritious fruits.

[AlphaPiRho]

meathamper you have your information how to say: backwards
there was a study made by "Dr. Robert P. Heaney, a calcium expert at Creighton University in Omaha." "The research preformed was on elderly persons of whoms diets were low in milk and other sources of calcium due to the fact that they consumed large amounts of coffee and soda"

"Another study which tracked 81 adolescents for six years and found that those who had the highest daily caffeine intake had no difference in bone gain or bone density at the end of the study than those with the lowest."

all quotes in this paragraph are cited from
newbielink:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/18/health/18real.html [nonactive]