Coffee: Your Daily Cup of Health

Coffee: Your Daily Cup of Health : You know how usually vices are supposed to be at least a bit unhealthy, right? Well, as fictitious as it might sound, coffee doesn’t actually fall in that category and this is thanks to its high levels of antioxidants and nutrients. Therefore, coffee drinkers, you are in luck! It seems that your risks of developing serious diseases are much lower.

Let’s discover together how that even is possible.

Energy

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, it’s basically the reason some of us started to drink coffee in the first place: it raises your energy levels. As a consequence, it also wakes your brain up, so you are likely to feel like you are even smarter.

All of this happens because of caffeine (also known as the psychoactive substance that is most commonly consumed all over the world), which travels to your brain once it’s been absorbed in the bloodstream. If you are curious about the science behind it, it’s actually not too complicated: caffeine acts as the brave superhero and blocks adenosine- an inhibitory neurotransmitter. This opens the path for norepinephrine and dopamine, you know, the happy neurotransmitters, leading to a powerful firing of neurons. Therefore, many brain functions are improved, such as reaction times, vigilance, mood and memory, besides the energy levels and the general mental functions.

Fat burner ally

If you do some digging, you will find out that caffeine is found in nearly every fat-burning supplement on the market. That is because it can actually boost your metabolism up to 11%. This percent differs between obese and lean people: 10% for the first category and 29% for the latter.

The only downside is that this story doesn’t seem to apply to long-term coffee drinkers, as this is more an effect that takes place only when you first start drinking coffee. So if you have been thinking about it, this could be your decisive reason!

Physical performance

Remember when we talked about the influences on the nervous system? It looks like there is even more to it, as caffeine acts as a stimulator, therefore sending a signal to fat cells to start breaking body fat down, turning free fatty acids in fuel for your body.

Your adrenaline levels- or your fight or flight hormone, are also increased, which means that they prepare your body for intense physical exercises.

With this in mind, a strong cup of coffee drunk before your gym session with about half an hour, can be your best stimulator, as it can improve your performance by 11% to 12%, on average.

Nutrient bomb

Have you ever thought about all the nutrients that can be found in coffee? Well, we’re here to blow your mind. There are a few of them actually and, it’s true, not in high doses, but they can still be something!

First off, in the highest dosage, we have riboflavin, or vitamin B2- 11% of the Reference Daily Intake indicator, also known as RDI. It is followed up by pantothenic acid, or vitamin B5, in 6%. Manganese and potassium are found in a 3% dosage, and magnesium and niacin (that form vitamin B3) are found in 2%.

Yes, the percentages are really low, but when you look at the fact that most people indulge in more than one cup a day, they quite add up! Not to mention all the other ingredients in your daily diet, that also make up your whole RDI.

A protector from many diseases

In this area, we have a lot to talk about. To begin with, coffee acts as a great guardian against type 2 diabetes, a serious health problem that affects many people around the world. As you might know, it appears when blood sugar levels are high, because of an insulin resistance or a minimized ability to collect insulin.

We don’t know yet why, but people who regularly consume coffee seem to have a significantly reduced risk of developing it, about 23% to 50%. Considering it can’t do any harm, we say we should stay on the safe side and keep enjoying our morning cup!

Next up, we have Alzheimer’s and dementia, neurodegenerative diseases, most common in people over 65, for which there hasn’t been a cure found yet. They can also be prevented through coffee drinking, studies showing up to a 65% decrease in chances of developing. Of course, other factors are incredibly effective too, like healthy eating and constant exercise, so combining all of these gives you a pretty solid chance to stabilized old years.

Another neurodegenerative disease that is also most commonly found in elders, but can also affect young people in certain circumstances, is Parkinson’s. Here, the cause is represented by the death of the neurons that generate dopamine in the brain. As you might know, there is also no cure, so prevention is the main focus. For coffee to be effective in this scenario, it must be caffeinated, thus lowering the risk between 32% and 60%.

Your liver can also become an at-risk organ during your lifetime, as it carries out many important functions in your body. Related diseases include fatty liver disease or hepatitis, both taking a serious toll on your health and leading up to cirrhosis, the point where your liver becomes mainly scar tissue. In this scenario, people who drink up to 4 cups of coffee per day, or even more, tend to have their risk lowered by 80%.

The most feared disease of all: cancer. This is normally the case because it causes an uncontrolled (not good) cell growth. It can also affect almost any part of your body, and coffee is here to protect your liver and colon from it. The risk percentage drops from 15% to 40%, depending on the case.

All these functions are just the most important ones that coffee leads in your body. There are also many more, like improving mental health by battling depression, but we think that all these reasons are enough to convince you that coffee is your best buddy: not only does it have your back when you are tired in the morning, but it also prevents many diseases and keeps you on your feet during the day. So don’t forget to truly appreciate your daily cup!