For ages, coffee has been both admired and derided by a lot of people. It has been blamed for causing impotence and even insanity, as well as being a remedy for sloth or a “gift from god”. Sounds crazy, right? But, do you have any idea what are the genuine, scientifically verified coffee health benefits? Well, we are here to discuss that.
Caffeine is the most well-known component of this beverage. Its health benefits have been extensively investigated by different coffee specialists, yet, it is important to note that coffee is a pretty complex drink containing a thousand distinct chemicals. Some researchers believe that caffeinated coffee and decaf might have the exact health benefits and caffeine is not entirely responsible for the majority of coffee’s health advantages.
So, coffee does more for you than just giving you an early morning pick-up energy. However, its health impacts have long been a contentious issue, with some people citing its antioxidant activity and brain-boosting abilities, while opponents list drawbacks such as sleeplessness, indigestion, and elevated heart rate. The most recent wave of scientific research provides a slew of good news for coffee enthusiasts, stating a bunch of health benefits of coffee. Here are 10 health benefits of drinking coffee every day so make sure to stay tuned!
In fact, coffee has greater antioxidant activity than both chocolate and green tea, which are antioxidant powerhouses. There have been around 1000 antioxidants discovered in raw coffee beans, however, that is not all! There are thousand more developing once you start roasting your beans. Different researches have shown coffee as a significant dietary source of antioxidants. So, how does it happen, really?
Antioxidants fight inflammation, which is the root cause of many chronic diseases such as atherosclerosis, arthritis, and many forms of cancer. They also have the ability to neutralize other radicals, which are produced normally as part of regular metabolic activities but can induce oxidative stress, which leads to chronic illness. So, what we are trying to say is that antioxidants work hard to prevent cell damage.
So, why is coffee good for you? Another reason for this is the fact that it can help you improve your short-term memory. Researchers from Australia proved a rise in brain activity in a group of volunteers who were given 100 mg of caffeine in total, which roughly is the amount contained in a single cup of coffee. It has been discovered that the individuals who had consumed caffeine had better memory abilities and response speeds were also enhanced when compared to the other people who did not exhibit any improvement in their memory activity.
Once again, how does it exactly happen? The answer to this question is pretty simple. Caffeine appears to influence some regions in your head that is responsible for your memory, giving you a boost to short-term memory, however, we do not have the exact information about how long the effects last – it can be different for each individual.
When someone asks if coffee is good for you, you can simply give them this answer. Regular coffee intake (meaning that you drink it on a daily basis), can help prevent health complications such as Alzheimer’s disease or other kinds of dementia, in addition to delivering a brief boost in brain activity and memory. There has been a special study in Finland where it has been discovered that drinking 4-5 cups of coffee daily is connected with a 60% lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s. That looks pretty promising, right? We also need to mention the fact that the researchers also examined the influence of tea consumption on cognitive deterioration and found nothing special.
There are numerous hypotheses on how coffee might help prevent or mitigate several diseases that we already mentioned. According to some ideas, caffeine prevents the development of specific proteins which attributes a lot to the progression of Alzheimer’s coffee specialists further hypothesize that because coffee consumption is related to a lower incidence of type 2 diabetes, which is a risk factor for dementia, it decreases the chance of acquiring it.
When talking about coffee health benefits and risks, it is important to note that coffee drinkers may have a decreased chance of getting aggressive prostate cancer. Furthermore, recent Harvard School research states that consuming 3 plus cups of coffee on a daily basis reduces the incidence of endometrial cancer in women when compared to those who drank less than 1 cup a day. Regular coffee use has also been linked to decreased incidence of colon, breast, rectal, and liver cancers, according to research.
If you want to know how this process happens, here is the answer for you. As we already mentioned earlier in this article, there are some antioxidants present in coffee. One such is called Polyphenol which has been shown in a lot of studies to have anticarcinogenic effects – they are considered to help decrease inflammation, which may be responsible for certain cancers.
There is also proof that there is definitely a connection between coffee consumption and a lower risk of diabetes. We believe that this is one of the best health benefits of coffee. According to several pieces of research, every cup of coffee reduces the chance of getting diabetes by at least 5%. Some previous studies have also discovered that strong coffee users (the ones that are able to consume five or more cups per day), had a 50% reduced chance of acquiring diabetes compared to non-drinkers.
Coffee specialists believe that this beverage may help you protect against diabetes in a bunch of ways. The acid that caffeine comes with is particularly effective in decreasing the harmful buildup of amyloid fibrils observed in patients with type 2 diabetes. Decaffeinated coffee is believed to be just as healthy as normal coffee.
It is also important to note that there is some evidence stating that coffee reduces muscle cell sensitivity to the actions of insulin, which may affect sugar metabolism and increase blood sugar levels. The importance of this discovery, however, is yet unknown.
Some might have a hard time believing it, however, it is true – Yes, your daily coffee intake is actually loved by the liver. Coffee intake causes a decreased incidence of cirrhosis, particularly alcoholic cirrhosis, in addition to decreasing the risk of liver cancer. A couple of researchers have found an inverse relationship between greater coffee intake and a lower incidence of cirrhosis – a 15% reduction for each cup drunk (up to 4 cups in total).
Researchers discovered an adverse association between blood levels of liver enzymes and coffee drinking Elevated levels of liver enzymes generally indicate liver damage. The more coffee individuals consumed, the lower their enzyme levels were. This is definitely another reason why coffee is good for you.
For a long time, the majority of people have believed that caffeine contributes a lot to dehydrating, which is one of the major reasons why fitness professionals advocate avoiding coffee use before or after a workout. However, it has recently been discovered that moderate caffeine use – up to 400 mg per day does not dehydrate exercisers sufficiently to interfere with their physical activities. Furthermore, coffee fights your exhaustion, allowing you to exercise for much longer than you would normally expect to.
Caffeine contributes a lot to your athletic performance by not just reducing exhaustion, but also by strengthening muscular contraction, decreasing your sense of pain, and increasing acids in your body – as a result you have more endurance.
Depression is a serious illness that drastically reduces one’s quality of life. It is quite widespread, with around 4 percent of persons in the United States now meeting the criteria for clinical depression. Several researchers have found that individuals who consume coffee had reduced the occurrence of mental illnesses. There definitely is an inverse association between depression and your daily coffee intake. Heavy coffee users seem to have a very low risk of having depression (up to 15%).
It is important to note that researchers have not been very clear about why coffee appears to prevent sadness, although it is known that caffeine stimulates neurotransmitters that govern moods, including serotonin and dopamine.
Independent research on men’s and women’s coffee consumption habits shows that drinking coffee on a daily basis lowers the chance of getting gout. Researchers have examined the health habits of a big number of nurses over a 26-year period and discovered a connection between prolonged coffee use and a lower occurrence of gout. The good news is that the effect was linked to both decaf and regular consumption. To put it in a few words, individuals who drink more than five cups of normal coffee per day have a 50% lower risk of gout. Gout risk is lowered by 20% in women who drink 1-3 coffee per day, and one cup of decaf per day is related to a 23% lower risk of gout as compared to those who do not consume this beverage at all.
What is the possible explanation behind all of this? Once again, this is where coffee’s antioxidants come into the scene. Considering the fact that we have mentioned them a couple of times during this article simply underlines their importance. So, their qualities help reduce the occurrence of gout by lowering insulin levels which as a result lowers uric acid levels.
A lot of people used to blame caffeine for contributing a lot to dehydration because of its diuretic action, which causes fluid loss. However, the current study suggests that after four days of continuous caffeine use, your body adapts, negating the drying impact. The main challenge here is to be consistent. What we are trying to say is that if you take one cup after waking up in the morning, then the next day you take three, and the next day you don’t drink it at all, you may have negative side effects such as low energy and headache.
All in all, coffee is a pretty popular beverage all around the world and it has a slew of health advantages to boot. So, if you ever find yourself asking a question “is coffee good for you” then the answer is that it is good. Not only does a daily cup of coffee make you feel more energized, burn fat, and enhance physical performance, but it also has the ability to help you decrease the risk of numerous diseases, that we already mentioned throughout the article, including, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. If you like the flavor and handle the caffeine concentration, don’t be afraid to have a cup or two during the day.
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