1. Start
a. Introduction
b. Myth affects over 50 percent of americans over the age of 18
c. Myth
i. Growth means height
d. Myth comes from caffeine being initially linked to reduced calcium, which leads to
osteoporosis
i. 2 reasons this is wrong
1. Very small calcium deficiency, can be offsetted with 6 ounces of milk
2. Osteoporosis does not always cause height loss
ii. Also, most people drink coffee after they are fully grown
e. Some of my friends who are short claim it is because they drank coffee growing up
i. I am tall and I drank a lot of coffee growing up
2. Research paper:
a. Experiment done on kids in central America
b. Conditions:
i. 12-24 months, already consumed coffee for 2 months prior
ii. 5 month period
iii. Either coffee or sugar and colored water
c. Results:
d. No significant difference in height or weight
3. Long term experiment/survey
a. Tracked 81 women aged 12-18 for 6 years
i. No difference between their coffee consumption and height or bone density or
structure
4. Studies that did show a link also showed that coffee drinkers drank less milk and other calcium
containing beverages, so it is the diet not the coffee that affected the osteoporisis
5. Myth persists because it was originally reported that caffeine can hurt your calcium intake,
which can hurt your growth
a. I think it still persists for two reasons
i. It is easier to remember bad things than good
ii. Caffeine does have other negative effects (sleep loss, diabetes) so it would not
be far fetched to also assume caffeine can stunt growth
6. To refute the myth, come up with informative pages or flyers in coffee shops with some simple
facts,
a. Coffee does not stunt growth, but other problems are present
b. To avoid problems with coffee, maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle