If you’re an avid coffee drinker and simply love the taste and smell of that first cup in the morning, you’ll be pleased to know that drinking this warm beverage might give you so much more than preparing you for the upcoming day.
Coffee is unique in its benefits that provide us with, and if you enjoy it every day, here’s what you can expect:
1. Type 2 diabetes will be one less worry for you
Diabetes is a sinister disease that can cause other serious illnesses and issues, including heart or kidney disease, stroke, vision loss, and even some nerve disease.
However, a cup of coffee every day may protect you from diabetes. A scientific study concluded there are clear connections between coffee consumption and decreased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Even if the coffee you drink is decaffeinated, there are clear signs that this beverage will reduce the risk of diabetes. Of course, adding sugar to your coffee is a big no-no!
2. You’ll feel happier even on a rainy day
Caffeine found in coffee is a special substance that does wonders for your brain. No wonder the majority of coffee drinkers are actually crazy about caffeine and its effects. These positive effects are especially visible if you consume lower levels of it (about 75mg). Caffeine improves your mental alertness and focus, keeps you energized, and, what’s best of all, it puts you in a good mood. Ok, coffee isn’t the same as “happy pills” but you will certainly feel the improvements in your mood after a cup of coffee.
What’s more, coffee reduces the risk of depression. A study by Harvard’s School of Public Health showed that those who drink up to three cups of coffee every day reduce suicide risk by 45%. It is probably the correlation between caffeine and its positive effect on people’s mood that leads to those results.
3. Fountain of youth in a cup
Antioxidants are extremely important food nutrients, as they help your body fight free radicals. Food rich in antioxidants has always been praised as something that you should eat on an everyday basis to maintain excellent health.
Luckily, it’s also this wonderful black beverage that can provide you with valuable antioxidants. Many nutrients coming from coffee beans are actually antioxidants that help your cells protect themselves from the negative effects of free radicals. What’s even better, according to the American Chemical Society, coffee provides our bodies with these nutrients a lot better than other food. So, drink that coffee and stay young for a long time!
4. Sharpen your mind and let your creativity go wild
As already mentioned, coffee does wonders for our brain. When coffee enters your liver, the enzymes in it cut off parts of the caffeine molecules. Now, these newly formed molecules work their magic on your mind – they provide more oxygen and nutrients to your brain, which boosts your cognitive function.
In other words, you are far more productive, efficient, and focused after you have your cup of coffee. It’s precisely this reason why many companies install office coffee equipment. Employees then tend to make more frequent, but also shorter breaks to enjoy coffee. These short, frequent breaks pumped with caffeine make the employees more productive, faster, and more efficient. Caffeine produces bursts of pure energy and creativity, which happens when you can focus better on your work. So, a cup of coffee at work every day means improved efficiency and better results.
5. Get rid of the excess weight with a smile
A huge number of the world population is trying to lose some weight, and there are more women in this fight than men. If you have decided to work on this issue and improve your health, then your habit to drink coffee may just help you with it. According to the CDC, coffee can help you lose weight as caffeine improves your physical performance. Specific molecules cut off from caffeine by liver enzymes also help the fat in your body to turn into fuel for your muscles, burning fatty acids in your bloodstream. In other words, your body burns fat faster, and you are more active while exercising after a cup of coffee.
However, bear in mind that focusing solely on drinking coffee to lose weight won’t get you far. You still have to mind your diet and other lifestyle habits. Nevertheless, it’s encouraging to hear that your beloved beverage is there to aid you in your efforts to get fitter and healthier.
6. Learn more and remember better
As the years pass by, we are all afraid our minds will eventually start betraying us gradually. Our concentration, alertness, as well as our memory capability, deteriorate with time.
This is why being an avid coffee drinker is great, especially when you’re older – Coffee has the ability to enhance memory retention, as stated in a study published in Nature Neuroscience journal. Caffeine is said to enhance performance up to 24 hours after taking it. Experts believe it strengthens the consolidation of long-term memories in our brains. You are most likely to remember things and details that you focused on after having a cup of coffee better.
However, this doesn’t mean that you should up the dosage in order to remember even more details – it doesn’t work like that.
7. Live longer and enjoy coffee longer
In short, drinking coffee every day may help you live longer – doesn’t that sound wonderful? According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, coffee lovers older than 50 have a lower risk of premature death than those who don’t drink coffee. And what causes these differences and how are they related to coffee?
Well, it’s not only the type 2 diabetes that you can be free of – many other life-threatening diseases and health issues are less probable to develop in people who enjoy a cup of coffee every day. As a coffee lover, you are also at a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease, some types of cancer, liver cirrhosis, dementia, and many others.
No wonder why many experts nicknamed coffee the “miracle drug”. It truly has some miraculous effects on our bodies that help us live longer and happier. However, it’s important to note that these wonderful benefits are best obtained from black caffeinated coffee. In other words, you should give up milk, sugar, cream, and many other additives including sprinkles and artificial flavors if you want coffee to do work wonders on you. Additives reduce the positive effects of coffee, especially antioxidants in it, whose role is to keep our cells young by regenerating them and protecting them from free radicals.
Don’t push it: Potential negative effects
It’s important not to lose yourself in the numerous benefits of drinking coffee regularly. Like many other things in our lives, coffee is something we should enjoy in moderation. Overly consumption of coffee can lead to some detrimental effects which can have further negative consequences on your quality of life.
You may also consider drinking low acid coffee great for sensitive stomachs.
You need to know what the side effects of drinking too much coffee are and what the optimal daily dosage is. It’s the only way to reap the maximum benefits of coffee without any negative impact.
Headache lurks around the corner
No matter whether you enjoy a cup of coffee or take caffeine in the form of a pill or energy drink, going too far will build up your caffeine tolerance. Your body will become too adapted to caffeine without any positive effects. What’s even worse, denying yourself your daily dose will lead to a “rebound” headache – a side effect of going through the day without that which your body is accustomed to. Quitting caffeine completely and suddenly will have even worse consequences in the form of serious headaches and other symptoms. So, if you notice caffeine doesn’t work on you anymore as it used to, it’s time to slowly reduce its amount to prevent shocking your body.
Say bye-bye to sleep
Too much caffeine can seriously affect the quality of your sleep – and sometimes stop you from getting any at all. Even moderate amounts of caffeine can disrupt sleep in some people, so it’s very important to identify how much caffeine gets you going during the day but doesn’t get in the way of your goodnight sleep. These effects can even get worse as you get older.
So, the first thing to avoid is drinking coffee too close to your bedtime, and for some people, it also includes the afternoon. Otherwise, you may experience trouble falling asleep or you will wake up a lot of times during the night. The result – bad mood the next day, fatigue, lack of focus, and slower reactions.
Remember that caffeine isn’t present only in coffee – it’s also present in tea, energy drinks, chocolate, and many prepackaged foods.
Blood pressure spikes are not to be messed with
Even though the reasons are yet to be discovered, caffeine can cause spikes in your blood pressure. In some people, the spike lasts only a short while, while in others it can turn into a long-term issue. The spikes may be caused by caffeine blocking the hormone responsible for keeping arteries wide, and blood pressure down.
Don’t go too far with caffeine intake if you have heart issues or blood pressure problems. It’s best to consult your doctor about how much coffee you can drink every day and avoid aggravating the symptoms.
Faster heart rates
As you already know, caffeine wakes you up – which is one of the reasons you can’t imagine your mornings without coffee. It’s only natural to expect that caffeine will make your heart beat a bit faster as it wakes you up. For most people, that’s not an issue at all.
However, if you are overly sensitive or if you are pushing it too far with the dosage, your pulse may go up a lot or stay high too long. You could even experience heart palpitations – irregular, weird heart rhythm. It’s like your heart skips a bit or two at some point. It’s not a pleasant feeling at all, and it’s not good for your heart, either, so reduce your dosage if you notice these effects.
Caffeine love – when does a lot become too much?
No one can say with complete certainty which daily dosage of caffeine is just enough for you to experience only the good effects. Every person is an individual – your weight, body type, dietary habits, medications, health issues, and overall health all affect that optimal dosage.
However, it’s safe to say that up to 400 milligrams of caffeine a day is acceptable for a healthy adult (or at least the majority of them). If you take over 600 milligrams a day, it’s probably going too far.
Furthermore, it’s highly important to listen to your body and identify the changes in it. For example, you may notice stomach problems, jitteriness, headaches, anxiety, or heart palpitations. Take these issues as a warning that you should reduce your daily caffeine dosage. It may take time to identify what dosage is perfect for you.
Bottom Line
In general, coffee has been the most popular warm beverage in the world for centuries for several good reasons – it has a seductive smell, unique, invigorating taste, it wakes you up and makes you more productive and focused, and it comes in many forms and additives that improve its taste.
Also, it has been concluded from various studies that coffee also has numerous benefits for our health in the long run if drunk on an everyday basis. These benefits improve the quality of our lives and make our day better.
Still, it is necessary not to go too far with its dosage because nothing can be good for us unless done in moderation. If you stay on the safe side and stick to your optimum caffeine dosage, no reason why your love for coffee shouldn’t last forever.
