Sean Hruswicki
Foods and Nutrition 12
19 October 2017
Mr. Brett
Does Caffeine Stunt Your Growth?
A lot of us in our early years have wanted to try coffee but we’re told no by our parents
because if you drink coffee at a young age it will stand your growth and make you short. The
myth that caffeine stunts your growth is a misconception and is not true at all but is still a common
belief. There is absolutely no concrete evidence that caffeine does so, and I will give you a few
reasons why it does not. First off, where did this myth originate from? Why do or did some of our
parents think this myth was true? The misconception that caffeine stunts your growth is from a time
where people thought coffee caused osteoporosis and osteoporosis was thought to stunt your growth.
There are some problems with this theory: caffeine does not cause osteoporosis, and osteoporosis
usually does not stunt your growth. Maybe our parents told us this as children because they wanted to
keep us away from caffeine in general. I think this because coffee is one of the most heavily
researched foods and you would think people would be more informed about it. A study that involved
81 adolescence for 6 years was conducted to compare the bone density of people that take in more
caffeine to people who take in less. Those with high caffeine intake had the same bone density in the
end as those with lower caffeine intake so this should pretty much debunks the myth completely. A
reason why coffee drinkers may have low bone density is because coffee drinkers tend to take in less
milk and other calcium containing beverages. In conclusion caffeine in fact does not make your bone
density lesser and will not make you short.
Sources:
www.health.harvard.edu
newyorktimes.com
science.howstuffworks.com
kidshealth.org