Baking soda is an everyday companion for many people who love baking and making pastries. However, have you ever thought of adding baking soda to coffee? Yes, coffee and baking soda may sound surprising, especially since baking soda is the last thing you would want to consider when making your favorite morning beverage. However, there are a few benefits when you add baking soda to coffee. What are those?
Well, according to Harvard Health, enjoying your morning cup of drink can reduce:
- Depression among women
- Lower risk of stroke among men and women
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- Heart attack
And even that’s not all! Therefore, it will be better to enjoy your coffee and harness the benefits of adding powder.
What is Baking Soda?
Baking soda is the common name for sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydrogen carbonate, a salt of sodium and bicarbonate ions. You may also find it under the name of bicarbonate of soda. It is a white, crystalline powder with a slightly salty taste. Baking soda is mostly used as a leavening agent for cakes and other pastries. However, some people use it as a safe fungicide.
Main Benefits of Putting Baking Soda in Coffee
It Neutralizes the Acid in Coffee
Baking soda, is alkaline, meaning that it’s used to neutralize acids. That means that you can add baking soda to coffee to reduce that acidic taste some people don’t like. Coffee has a low pH ranging from 4.85-5.10 and comes with a cocktail of its own acidic compounds, including phosphoric acid. While you cannot get rid of the acidic compounds, you can reduce them by adding a base to your drink. This way, if you have mild acid reflux, you can enjoy it to avoid discomfort.
Soda Reduces Acid Reflux
Acid reflux is the burning sensation you experience when acid backs up from your stomach into your food pipe. And around 15 million Americans put up with acid reflux daily. And if you have this condition, baking soda coffee should help neutralize the acid causing the burning sensation and give you relief.
However, keep in mind that it is always better to visit a doctor since the burning sensation could be as a result of gastroesophageal reflux disease or any other serious condition.
Baking Soda May Relieve Gout
A gout is an inflammatory form of arthritis that causes severe pain from the large toe and can extend to the ankle, entire foot, or knees. This disease has its onset after the age of 40 and is 3-times more likely to affect men than women. Baking soda and coffee is a popular remedy for gout as its high pH allows it to break up uric acid structures so that they are easier to expel through the kidneys. Some studies suggest that caffeine if consumed in low amounts, can protect you from gout.
You must be careful, as excess caffeine will again make the situation worse, predisposing you to an attack by up to 80%. Adding this powder to your beverage should also lower the acidity of the coffee, which helps to keep acidic drinks away from your body. However, there is no correlation between caffeine and blood uric acid levels, but a mild consumption of coffee with sodium bicarbonate may help with gout.
Baking Soda Offers Relief From Stomach Ulcers
Baking soda is present in many antacid drugs as sodium bicarbonate because it neutralizes excess stomach acid and can, therefore, be used to treat the severe symptoms that accompany stomach or duodenal ulcers. If you are wondering how much baking soda do I add in coffee, a quarter to a half of a tablespoon to your drink grounds with the best coffee maker should help.
Side Effects of Baking Soda
Some of the possible side effects of taking the baking soda include:
- High blood pressure
- Increased thirst
- Stomach cramps
You should let your doctor know if you have hypertension or kidney disease, or are taking any other drugs before you take baking soda. Also, avoid taking excess powder to avoid offsetting your blood pH dangerously or causing heart problems.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are plenty of benefits of adding baking soda in coffee: mainly that it reduces the acid in your drink, thus you experience fewer acid refluxes. On the other hand, adding baking soda to coffee may lead to some downsides, like increased thirst, high BP, and so forth. So you can add baking soda in coffee, just as long as you don’t overdose it, which is around ½ of a teaspoon for a cup of coffee.
The important thing is to listen to your body – if you experience any crams, nausea, constant heartaches e.t.c then stop adding baking soda to your coffee and consult with your doctor.
So listen to your body, stay healthy and feel free to let us know if you have any more questions!