Coffee - Natures Wonder Food

Coffee Love

Coffee. The elixir of life. Coffee is no-doubt a delightful routine for many of us. In fact it is estimated that approximately 54% of adults over the age of eighteen are daily coffee drinkers. That’s a whole bunch of caffeine there! 

So the question remains, is coffee actually good for you? You might be pleasantly surprised by these facts. It turns out you might not need to feel so guilty about at least one of your daily vices after all.

Here’s a few cold (or hot, we’re not here to judge how you have your coffee or your facts) hard facts about the delectable black drink so many of us can’t survive without.

Coffee can improve your brain function

Ok, so you’re not going to go from a Forest Gump to an Einstein by drinking the occasional mug of latte. Coffee contains a not-so-secret ingredient called caffeine. Caffeine does wonders when it hits the bloodstream by going straight to the brain. Caffeine contains something called adenosine which is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. When it hits your brain it essentially aids in blocking some of your neurotransmitters, which in turn increases the levels of hormones such as dopamine (one of the chemicals that help make you happy). Strangely enough, the effects of this release improves various brain functions such as memory, mood, energy levels (yay!), reaction times and cognitive function. Pretty cool huh? 

Coffee can help you burn fat

I know many of you have stopped reading by this point and have gone in search of coffee. For those vigilant enough to stay tuned, here’s another one of coffee’s gifts to us. Caffeine can help boost your metabolism by as much as 11%! A speedy metabolism burns fat stores faster, stronger, and betterer (err, you get the idea). It should be noted though that long-term users/drinkers may have diminished effects on the metabolism.

Improve Nay, drastically improve physical performance

Caffeine you marvellous thing you! It also increases the levels of adrenaline in the blood. Adrenaline is the ‘fight or flight’ hormone that increases your heart rate, and gets you prepared for intense physical activity. Caffeine helps the body break down fat-stores into free fatty acid and makes them available for fuel, which in turn powers the body/engine/turbines. 

There are nutrients in coffee

You’ll hardly believe it, but coffee contains some pretty amazing stuff as well. Riboflavin, Pantothenic acid, manganese, potassium, magnesium and niacin are just some of it’s awesome properties. All of which help form part of a healthy, balanced diet.

Coffee can reduce the likelihood of developing type II diabetes

What? No way! Yes way. There have been numerous studies done in various ways that confirm this statement, but the truth is there have been a total test pool of nearly 460,000 individuals. The aggregate of the various studies showed that drinking just one cup per day can lower the chances of diabetes by 7%. Some tests show this figure to be as high as 67% reduction in chance of developing the disease.

The benefits seem to go on and on. Some of the other healthy side effects of this wonderful liquid include;

• Lowering the risk of Alzheimer’s disease

• Lowering the risk of Parkinson’s disease

• Has protective effects on the Liver

• Combats the symptoms of depression, and help make you happier

• Lower the chances of developing certain cancers

• Lowers the risk of heart disease, and strokes

• Help you live longer? (awesome!)
  
  

Among all that, coffee has become the largest source of antioxidants in the western diet. For people that eat a fairly standard western diet (think small amounts of fruit and vege, and larger amounts of fried food), coffee contains a huge amount of antioxidants and even more than certain vegetables.

So you can let go of the guilt of drinking coffee daily. You may even decide to ramp up your coffee intake after reading this. It has been written here before, but like many things in life, the health benefits are there when the food group is ingested in moderation. Coffee is obviously wonderful, and not to criticize the liquid bliss, but it shouldn't be used to replace any part of a balanced diet.