Many students these days are beginning to catch the coffee craze. Wanting that daily cup of Joe has forced many students into the habit of brewing a pot each morning before school. What many don’t know, however, are the facts behind that warm cup of caffeine. For example, you may have heard that coffee will stunt your growth. But is that really true? What other negative effects might it have?

Many students stop by Cuppa Joe or Dunkin Donuts before heading off to FCHS each morning, figuring that one cup of “mud” won’t do much harm. But if you’re consuming multiple cups a day to help you stay awake for a long night of studying, there could be some potential issues. Dr. Rob van Dam, an Assistant Professor at Harvard, did a study to test the health risks of drinking too much coffee. What he discovered is that the majority of adults can drink up to six cups a day with no increased risk of death (assuming that a cup is eight ounces). However, Van Dam noted that “if you’re drinking so much coffee you get tremors, have sleeping problems or feel stressed and uncomfortable, then you’re obviously drinking too much coffee.”

Did you ever hear your parents say “coffee will stunt your growth”? Turns out, that is untrue. Students in a chemistry class at the University of Delaware did a study to see what the effects of coffee were on a person’s overall bone growth. They concluded that, even over a long period of time, drinking coffee will not prevent you from growing normally.

Since most high school students don’t have the ability to fill up their coffee cups throughout the day, consuming too much coffee might not be an issue for them. Drinking too many calories, however, is another matter. Most teens seem less interested in plain old coffee than the high-calorie drinks provided at coffee houses, such as frappes and flavored lattes or cappuccinos. But some of these drinks can top 500 calories each, which is 25% of the daily recommended intake for most teens. If you regularly consume such drinks and don’t limit what you eat the rest of the day, you could find yourself adding that “freshman 15” before college.

Believe it or not, several studies have concluded that coffee could potentially protect people against some diseases, including Type 2 diabetes. Since coffee is composed of so many elements other than caffeine, it is difficult to know what each individual component does to your body. But some people have found the caffeine helpful. “I get really bad headaches and I found that drinking coffee was a good way to cope,” said senior Emily LeSueur.

While the benefits of coffee are still being discovered, they do seem to outweigh its harmful aspects. As long as you don’t frequent Starbucks for a calorie-loaded frappe more than once a week, having some coffee to wake up before school isn’t a bad idea. Since they say that “everything is good in moderation,” you can probably safely keep consuming that morning cup of Joe.