Is it true that coffee helps reduce breast size in women?

There is an opinion that excessive coffee consumption negatively affects breast size in women. We decided to check if this is true.

The fact that addiction to coffee leads to a decrease in breast size has been reported by many media: the TV channel "World", "RIA Novosti", "Moskovsky Komsomolets", "Komsomolskaya Pravda"etc. This information can be found in glossy publications and on websites near-medical topics. Some people also talk about this expert nutritionists, and social network users (“VKontakte", X) And blogging platforms share relevant concerns.

To understand whether drinking coffee can really lead to breast reduction, you need to understand what determines its size. Mainly it defines genetics. Since a person receives a fixed set of genes at birth, there is no way to change it by drinking coffee in the middle of life. Other important factors that influence a woman's breast size include hormones, body weight, and physiological conditions (such as pregnancy or a certain phase of the menstrual cycle). 

There are some grounds believe that drinking coffee can help you lose weight. Body mass index correlates with breast size, because breast, in addition to the mammary gland, it usually also includes a fat layer. However, experts notethat gaining or losing weight will not necessarily affect its size - everything is individual, perhaps the fat layer will leave other parts of the body, and the size of the breast will remain unchanged.

The parameters of a woman's breasts can also be affected hormone estrogen - it is responsible for its small changes in different phases of the menstrual cycle. Also estrogen, for example, appoint for breast growth for people during transgender transition. There are research, indicating that caffeine consumption does affect levels of this hormone in women. However, the results differ depending on the origin: for example, estrogen levels decreased in white women, increased in Asian women, and there was no statistically significant difference at all among black women. Therefore, without additional research, it is difficult to say unequivocally how exactly coffee affects estrogen levels and thereby the parameters of a woman’s breasts.

The authors of most articles and posts about the effect of coffee on breast size refer to some work by scientists from the University of Lund (Sweden), and the year of publication of the corresponding scientific article varies from source to source. The only thing study, conducted by scientists from Lund, related to coffee consumption and breast parameters and discovered by “Verified”, was published in 2008. In 269 women from families with a high risk of breast cancer, breast volume was measured twice during the menstrual cycle (not to be confused with size - the difference between the girth of the chest under the chest and the chest itself), they also filled out a questionnaire about their lifestyle (including answering a question about drinking coffee). About half of the participants were carriers of the CYP1A2*1F gene, which is associated with the risk of breast cancer. In fact, the researchers did not study the effect of coffee in the diet on bust size, but the correlation between the presence of a certain gene, coffee consumption and breast volume. It turned out that carriers of the CYP1A2*1F gene who daily consumed three or more cups of coffee with a volume of 150 ml each had smaller breasts than those who avoided this drink. However, coffee lovers who did not have this gene had slightly larger breast volume. Scientists did not claim that drinking coffee contributes to breast reduction. They could not come to such a conclusion, given the study design, which did not involve tracking indicators over time for any length of time. In addition, the sample of subjects was relatively small. 

American scientific magazine Discover in its time named Swedish publication was the worst scientific article of the week - precisely because many media outlets misinterpreted this publication, keeping silent about the researchers' focus on genetics and providing the articles with loud headlines about the negative effect of coffee on breast size. Over the past 15 years, retellings in the media have become even worse at reflecting the content of the original source. 

Previously "Verified" already sorted it out claim that eating cabbage affects breast size. Scientific evidence of any effect of this method could not be found at that time. The search for similar works on coffee, which would confirm the cause-and-effect relationship between heavy consumption of this drink and breast reduction, also did not lead to any reliable results.

Cover photo: pexels.com

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

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