Coffee. A Health Hack or hindrance?
Do you find it hard to kick the day off without your morning cup of coffee? Well you are not alone, The UK alone drinks around 95 million cups of coffee a day¹
Like lots of things within the health space it can be very confusing to work out if this daily habit is damaging to our health.
First of all let's breakdown the nutritional information:
A typical (240-ml) cup of coffee contains
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin): 11% of the DV (daily value)
Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid): 6% of the DV
Vitamin B1 (thiamine): 2% of the DV
Vitamin B3 (niacin): 2% of the DV
Folate: 1% of the DV
Manganese: 3% of the DV
Potassium: 3% of the DV
Magnesium: 2% of the DV
Phosphorus: 1% of the DV
Coffee is rich in several types of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that reduce your risk of serious health conditions like cancer and heart disease by fighting cell damage
Now lets look at some of the Pros and Cons of drinking coffee:
Pros:
Caffeine can cause a short-term boost in energy levels, brain function, metabolic rate and exercise performance. However, these effects can be short-term. If you drink coffee every day, you will build up a tolerance — and with it, the effects will be less powerful.
Coffee May Protect Your Brain From Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Studies have shown that coffee drinkers have up to a 65% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Coffee drinkers have a 32–60% lower risk of Parkinson’s disease. The more coffee people drink, the lower the risk .
Coffee Drinkers Have a Much Lower Risk of Type 2 Diabetes. One review of 18 studies in 457,922 people associated each daily cup of coffee with a 7% reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.
Coffee Drinkers Have a Lower Risk of Liver Diseases. Studies have shown that coffee drinkers have up to a 40% lower risk of liver cancer.
Now that’s all sounding pretty good right? But it would be amiss of me to not go through the cons. The truth is, there are some negative aspects to coffee as well, although this depends on the individual.
Cons:
Ever felt a bit jittery after too much coffee? Consuming too much caffeine can lead to jitteriness, anxiety, heart palpitations and even panic attacks. If you are sensitive to caffeine, you may want to avoid coffee altogether.
As caffeine is a stimulant coffee can of course affect your sleep. If coffee hinders your sleep quality, try have your last cup around 12 pm.
Caffeine can also have diuretic and blood pressure-raising effects, though these usually dissipate with regular use. However, a slight increase in blood pressure of 1–2 mm/Hg may persist.
Caffeine Is Addictive and Missing a Few Cups Can Lead to Withdrawal, symptoms include exhaustion, brain fog, headaches, and irritability.
So personally I love the taste of a cup of coffee and love that I can get some health benefits for it to! I am however conscious of my intake and tend to stick to 1-2 cups a day a very rarely have a cup in the afternoon!
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References
¹https://www.nescafe.com/gb/understanding-coffee/coffee-statistics/#:~:text=1%2F3%20of%20people%20don,than%206%20cups%20per%20day.
²https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/coffee-good-or-bad#TOC_TITLE_HDR_2