Since the dawn of time people have been drinking coffee, and the myth that it makes the human society short has always followed close behind. This legend has been told from generation to generation, urging the younger portion of the population to not drink coffee. But where are the facts to this too-good-to-be-true fairytale?

Apparently there has been decades of research done on the physiological effects of of coffee, but none of the research proves that it affects a person’s height. The details of the myth are unknown, but a good guess would be caffeine, which for a long time was supposed to be a risk factor for Osteoporosis (a disease that hollows out the bone leaving it fragile and susceptible for fracturing). These worries came from earlier studies that associated high intakes of caffeine with reduced bone mass. More recent studies have stated that if the theory is true, the effect is so insignificant that it hardly matters.

There is another possible explanation for the previous study’s results. Dr. Robert P. Heaney a calcium expert who teaches at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska says that most of the tests in the study were performed on older people who had low calcium intakes anyway. So technically their bones were already on their way to becoming pretty brittle.

Another study comparing the daily coffee intake and bone density consisted of 81 kids for 6 years and the final conclusion was that there was no difference between the kids who consumed the most coffee daily and the kids who consumed the least.

Although we must consider that drinking coffee at premature ages can still cause headaches, dizziness, anxiety, the jitters, and insomnia. Despite the fact that drinking massive amounts of coffee probably wouldn’t  impair one’s height, it is still not recommended for adolescents.