We Love Our Coffee. Does Our Coffee Love Us Back?
You wake up in the morning, and one of the first things you’ll do is grab a cup of coffee. You love the taste. You love the aroma. Still, there’s a part of you that wonders if you should be partaking in a cup (or more) every day.
It’s a fact that 54% of Americans drink coffee every day. Coffee is consumed more than any other beverage of the world. You’ll be happy to know that there are definite health benefits to drinking coffee and there’s more research on the way to back up early research in other areas. Let’s take a look at the top 10 reasons coffee should be on your menu every morning.
1.) Coffee Can Lower the Risk of Developing Diabetes
It’s true that over 9% of Americans now suffer from diabetes. The top factor behind this is a battle of lifestyle choices including the never-ending battle between healthy and unhealthy diets.
Scientists at the Harvard/T.H. Chan School of Public Health evaluated data from 128,000 Health Care professionals. They were surveyed about their diet choices for over 20 years. Over those two decades ago, 7300 of them were diagnosed with type two diabetes, but the ones who drank more than one cough up cup of coffee daily had lowered their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 11%.
2. Coffee Can Prevent Cavities
One notable health benefit of coffee is its ability to decrease tooth decay. Several studies have proven that roasted coffee beans work as an antibacterial agent against S. mutans, the bacterium that’s known to cause tooth decay.
Studies have indicated that roasted coffee is shown to prevent teeth from absorbing the bacteria. In these studies different types of coffee beans were used and both roasted and unroasted beans were tested. Both Arabica and Robusta beans were tested and provided similar benefits although the roasted beans seem to be more effective in preventing bacteria from sticking to the teeth.
Anila Namboodiripad P, Kori S. Can coffee prevent caries?. J Conserv Dent. 2009;12(1):17-21. doi:10.4103/0972-0707.53336
3.) Coffee May Reduce the Risk of Developing Alzheimer’s Disease.
Seeing the rate at which people are developing the cases of Alzheimer’s can be unnerving, but there are preventive measures you can take to slow down the development of this disease. Studies indicate that drinking coffee may lower your risk. We’d love to see more research on this.
4.) Coffee Improves Your Mood
Coffee contains that ever-popular nootropic, caffeine. Caffeine is known to improve your mood and cognitive functioning. This makes you more alert and it also improves your mood.
You may have noticed this if you’ve been drinking coffee every day and suddenly stop. You and your friends will notice a significant downswing in your mood. If you start drinking coffee again, you may find they suddenly remembered your number and start contacting you again.
5.) Coffee Is Good For Your Liver
It’s all about what you’re drinking, isn’t it? When you avoid alcohol and drink more coffee, the coffee is what will be protecting your liver while the alcohol will be trying to destroy it.
6.) Coffee May Prevent Skin Cancer
More and more people are being diagnosed with skin cancer every year. It’s one of the fastest growing cancers in the world.
Many of the things you can do to prevent skin cancer, like putting on sunscreen, you do without thinking twice about it. One other thing you can do without thinking about it is drink coffee. There’s no final conclusion as to why drinking coffee may help reduce the risk of getting skin cancer, but many scientists speculate that it’s the caffeine.
7.) Coffee Can Improve Cardiovascular Health
We’ve been told time and it can that coffee is bad for our heart. Sure, if you drink 30 cups a day, that would be bad. Overindulgence in anything puts yourself at risk for a cardiovascular event. However, coffee, when drank in moderation, is actually beneficial to your heart health.
8.) Coffee Strengthens Your DNA
Did you know that you can strengthen your DNA? Even if you did, you may wonder why you’d want to do that. Well, why wouldn’t you?
DNA strands can break (gross, I know). Caffeine can tighten the integrity of DNA, so drinking coffee is actually giving your DNA some much needed strength. Between drinking coffee and listening to 528Hz Solfeggio soundscapes, we’re on the road to a whole new level of awesomeness.
9.) Coffee is Full of Antioxidants
We know that we need protection against all of those nasty rogue free radicals. Coffee, coming from a berry itself, contains more antioxidants than most other fruits including red grapes and oranges. Maybe I shouldn’t do this and I’m not saying I’m proud of it, but I count my morning coffee as a serving of fruit.
10.) Coffee Can Help You Live Longer
So, here we are at the one we’ve been waiting for. According to Dr. Ming Ding, M.D., this is how it goes:
“Bioactive compounds in coffee reduce insulin resistance and systematic inflammation. They might be responsible for the inverse association between coffee and mortality. However, more studies are needed to investigate the biological mechanisms producing these effects.”
Yes, more studies are needed, but that’s a good enough reason for us to keep on slurping. You don’t need to tell us twice.
