Coffee has been villainized among fitness gurus and trainers in recent years, but the most recent research indicates that it doesn’t have to be a bad thing, as long as some precautions are taken.

The first precaution is to consume it in moderation because coffee tends to be acidic, which leads to inflammation, which can cause health problems and can also make fat loss more challenging. As long as consumption is kept to 1 to 2 cups a day, the inflammation issue shouldn’t be too significant though.

The second precaution is to make sure that your coffee is organic. Coffee is pretty difficult to grow, therefore huge amounts of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers are used on the conventional coffee plantations.

The third precaution is to be mindful of what you put in your coffee, because this can dictate whether it is fattening or not. Artificial sweeteners are definitely fattening as well as toxic, which makes fat loss much harder to accomplish. Sugar is also fattening because that will spike your insulin, which will put you in a fat storing mode, which will cause you to store the fat you eat before and after that coffee, as well as any fat you put in the coffee.

Speaking of fat in the coffee, cream is fine as long as it is organic and you are using a natural sweetener like Stevia or Truvia to sweeten your coffee. Using one of these sweeteners will not cause the insulin spike, so you won’t store the fat you’re drinking or eating.

Here’s a fun fact: The “buzz” you get from coffee is not the caffeine in it. It is actually the caffeine stimulating the release of adrenaline. Over time, this leads to depleted kidney/adrenal function which can in turn lead to higher levels of cortisol in your system. You don’t want higher levels of cortisol in your system because that hormone makes fat loss virtually impossible. This is another reason for moderation with this beverage.

You have probably also heard from people that coffee is a diuretic. Yes it is, but 1 to 2 cups won’t be very dehydrating, so again, moderation is important for this reason too.

If you are drinking more than 2 cups a day, you may be suffering from the side effects listed above and will probably find it harder to lose fat. This will be exacerbated if you are also a bad water drinker. The dehydrating effects of coffee, combined with not drinking enough water, will guarantee that fat loss will be much more difficult.

Recent research has indicated that there are actually some health benefits to drinking one cup of coffee a day. That amount can be a therapeutic dose offering some antioxidant benefits. A couple studies have even shown that it can even shrink certain kinds of  brain tumors too, so the jury is still discussing the pros and cons of coffee.

If you drink more than 2 cups a day and/or are addicted and need to wean yourself off it, I would suggest starting this process by drinking half regular organic and half organic steam-distilled decaf. Then you can transition to organic steam – distilled decaf only. The last step is to cut it out completely and switch to green tea if you still need that warm beverage fix. Chai tea is okay too, but whatever your beverage, it still matters what you put in it!