According to a study published in Jama Network open, a cup of caffeinated coffee or tea could have negative impacts on unborn children.
The study report by the lead author Dr. Jessica Gleason, children born from mothers who consumed caffeine while pregnant were shorter than those born from mothers that did not consume caffeine.
“To be clear, these are not huge differences in height, but there are these small differences in height among the children of people who consumed caffeine during pregnancy,” said Gleason.
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According to Dr. Gavin Pereira, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Curtin University in Australia, it’s not clear whether this study effectively shows causation between maternal caffeine consumption and child height.
“The correlation observed in this study can be explained by the existence of a common cause of both caffeine consumption and growth restriction e.g., poverty, stress, and dietary factors,” said Pereira in a statement to the Science Media Centre.
Poor cardiometabolic outcomes such as heart disease and diabetes are sometimes associated with smaller stature especially in cases where shorter height in childhood persisted into adulthood.
However, it is yet to be proven whether the difference would persist into adulthood.