FatBlaster Keto-Fit Coffee 85g

Coffee is mostly a food choice rather than a medicine, so the questions our naturopaths ask in store are mostly about timing, how you brew it and how much caffeine is already adding up in your day.

A good fit if

• You're an adult who enjoys coffee and wants to know the real caffeine numbers behind it
• You're after the small, genuine lift in focus or exercise performance that caffeine can give
• You're choosing between a cup, a green coffee extract capsule or isolated caffeine
• Your cholesterol is fine, or you already stick to filtered coffee
• You're not pregnant, breastfeeding or prone to panic or anxiety attacks

Check with us first if

• You're pregnant or breastfeeding. Keep your total caffeine under 200 mg a day.
• You take any prescription medicine that's broken down by the liver enzyme CYP1A2.
• You're combining coffee with pre-workouts, energy drinks or other caffeine supplements.
• You have high blood pressure that's being treated, especially if you're an older adult.
• You're managing gout, or you're a woman being investigated for high uric acid.
• You take iron supplements or eat iron-rich meals. Keep them apart from your coffee.

• Brewed, instant or ground coffee (arabica or robusta). Best known for: The everyday drink, and where the evidence for alertness comes from. Absorption: Caffeine is absorbed quickly and almost completely; you'll usually feel it within about an hour. Typical use: 1 to 4 cups a day; about 80 mg caffeine per cup of instant.
• Unfiltered brew (plunger, espresso, Turkish, boiled). Best known for: Keeps the oils that a paper filter removes. Absorption: Caffeine is absorbed the same way; the extra compounds are the diterpenes cafestol and kahweol. Typical use: Switch to filtered coffee if you're managing your LDL cholesterol.
• Decaffeinated coffee. Best known for: Most of the polyphenols, with little of the caffeine. Absorption: Not applicable for caffeine; polyphenols are assumed to be absorbed much like regular coffee. Typical use: If you want the drink without the effect on sleep or anxiety.
• Green (unroasted) coffee bean extract. Best known for: A concentrated capsule standardised to chlorogenic acid, not a drink. Absorption: Trials found that a higher chlorogenic acid dose didn't give a bigger effect. Typical use: Capsules of roughly 200 to 800 mg; still counts toward the daily caffeine limit.
• Coffee cherry (fruit) extract, decaffeinated. Best known for: Made from the fruit around the bean, not the seed, and caffeine-free. Absorption: Tested at 200 mg in one small study; the size of the effect wasn't published. Typical use: For the fruit's polyphenols without any caffeine warnings.
• Isolated caffeine. Best known for: The strictest Australian conditions in the family. Absorption: Absorbed quickly by mouth, just like caffeine from coffee. Typical use: Limited to 100 mg a day as an active ingredient, well below a coffee-strength dose.

Reference values. None. Caffeine isn't a nutrient, so the NHMRC sets no recommended intake for it.

Typical supplemental range. These are trial and label doses only, not a recommendation. Performance trials use 3 to 6 mg of caffeine per kg of body weight, about an hour before exercise, which works out to roughly 2 to 4 cups of coffee. Green coffee extract trials have used anywhere from 50 mg to 1,200 mg of extract a day.

Upper level. Word for word from items 1523 to 1525 (COFFEA ARABICA, COFFEA CANEPHORA, COFFEE): "the maximum recommended daily dose of the medicine must provide no more than 400 mg of total caffeine" and "a maximum recommended dose of the medicine must not provide more than 100 mg of total caffeine within a 3 hour period." Isolated caffeine (item 1054) has a tighter cap again: no more than 100 mg of caffeine a day from that ingredient alone.

Worth knowing. A cup of instant coffee has about 80 mg of caffeine, so the 400 mg cap for medicines is roughly five cups' worth in a day. Coffee as a drink has no such limit. What you need depends on your age, diet and health, so talk to one of our naturopaths.

Food first, where the diet allows it.

• Instant coffee, 1 cup: about 80 mg caffeine, the TGA's own reference figure
• Brewed coffee, 250 mL: around 107 mg caffeine as modelled in sleep research
• A standard pre-workout coffee serve: about 217.5 mg caffeine
• Robusta beans versus arabica beans: robusta carries more caffeine gram for gram
• Decaffeinated coffee: caffeine mostly removed; most polyphenols stay

If any of these sound like you, talk to one of our naturopaths or your doctor before you start.

• Pregnancy and breastfeeding. Keep your total caffeine under 200 mg a day; some studies found risks even below that.
• Panic disorder or high anxiety sensitivity. Large caffeine doses have triggered panic attacks in controlled trials.
• Children. Caffeine supplements are labelled adults only, and coffee as a drink isn't recommended for kids either.
• Medicines broken down by the liver enzyme CYP1A2. Caffeine interacts with this pathway.
• Other caffeine sources. Tea, energy drinks, pre-workouts and supplements all add to the same daily total.
• Treated high blood pressure, especially in older adults. In trials, coffee has raised blood pressure measured across the day in this group.
• Low iron or iron supplements. Have coffee apart from iron-rich meals.
• Unfiltered coffee (plunger, espresso, Turkish or boiled), if you're managing your cholesterol.
• Gout or high uric acid (hyperuricaemia), particularly in women. Overall, coffee is linked to less gout, but the picture is mixed between men and women.
• If you take prescription medicines, check with your doctor, pharmacist or our naturopaths before starting.