There’s nothing wrong with loving your morning joe. The widely-held belief for a long time was that drinking too much coffee could be bad for you.
Surprise: Coffee won’t sprout a third arm out of the blue or cause you to gain 300 pounds every time you fall victim to another tantalizingly delicious cup.
Thank heavens for research because scientists have proven in recent years just how healthy having a cup (or two or three) really is for your health.
You’ll be a better colleague, a better friend and a healthier version of yourself just by starting your day with a piping hot pick-me-up.
And if you’re really in the mood to up the ante on your health, try Vita Coco’s tempting Vita Coco Café. It’s a latte blended with coconut water.
1. You’ll live longer.
The question has been tossed back and forth for years: Does coffee add years to your life or will it strip a few away? Seems like the problem that’s been plaguing coffee drinkers for years finally has an answer, and it’s one we’ll all love (especially when it’s time for that 4 o’clock fix!).
Harvard School of Public Health nutritional expert Dr. Rob van Dam found that caffeine addicts may live longer than those who go without. He and a team of researchers studied 130,000 coffee drinkers over the course of 24 years and found the “side effects” were really nothing to be worried about.
In fact, indulging in a non-flavored cup of your favorite roast might even put you on the right track toward longevity.
2. Java junkies are better athletes.
Feeling a little too old to pick up a new sport? Turns out that java could spur the extra jolt you need to get going – and stay going. Coffee, apparently, increases the number of fatty acids in your bloodstream that makes it easy for your muscles to absorb and burn those fats as fuel.
The more fatty acids it’s able to burn, the fewer carbohydrates it eats up, which means you’ll feel energized from tip-off to overtime.
3. Weight loss just got a whole lot easier.
Most of us think of coffee as the refreshing savior that helps us get through the morning (and afternoon), but coffee is more than just the liquid we poor lovingly into our cups. Extract from green coffee beans (coffee beans that haven’t yet been roasted) was found to be a significant aid in weight loss for adults.
The study, performed by the Psychology Department at the University of Scranton, followed 16 overweight adults for 22-weeks and found that those given green coffee extract had undergone “significant weight loss.” Researchers even noted that 37.5 percent of the adults moved from “pre-obesity” weights to a normal weight.
4. Coffee could keep your mental – and physical – health intact.
The American Chemical Society found that coffee drinkers limit their risk of Type-2 Diabetes, while a similar study published in the Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry found that people who drink four or more cups of joe a day reduce their chances of Type-2 Diabetes by more than fifty percent.
Another study performed by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School that followed women and over a 20-year period found that women who drink more than three cups of coffee a day are way less likely to develop skin cancer when compared to female non-coffee drinkers.
And if those effects weren’t enough to woo you, researchers from the University of Eastern Finland School of Medicine found that people who drank three to five cups of coffee each day had a 65 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s and dementia later on in life.
5. Your morning – and afternoon – fix pretty much makes you smarter.
Turn toward that morning cup with a little more enthusiasm! Turns out that the morning energy boost you get from your local barista isn’t just helping you get to work on time – it’s helping unlock your smarts, too.
Scientists from the Medical University in Innsbruck, Austria, found that guys who drink that morning cup of joe performed much better on short-term memory tests than guys who skip the morning java.
Time magazine reporter Michael Lemonick, who was quoted in the report and is an avid coffee-drinker himself said, “It allows you to use what brain power you have in a much more efficient and focused way.”
Pretty sure your employer will love that.
6. Coffee drinkers are just naturally happier.
You probably don’t need a slew of research to tell you what you already know: The bliss that slides in as soon as you take your first whiff of the miracle that is coffee is what true happiness is all about, right? Right.
But in case you needed to stick a fact behind it, we’ve got that too. Coffee is just booming with antioxidants that make you feel good and the National Institute of Health even noted that big-time drinkers (who consumed four or more cups a day) were 10 percent less likely to suffer from depression.
No comments:
Post a Comment