Is coffee good for you?
Cofee is one of the most popular beverages in the world. 19 million or around 75% of Australians drink coffee and it’s pretty similar in a lot of other countries. But is coffee any good for you?
The Good
The good news is that there’s strong evidence that drinking coffee can have a variety of health benefits.
The caffeine in coffee can boost your brain function, improve mood, energy, concentration and reaction time.
Coffee contains ribolfavin (Vitamin B2) and niasin (Vitamin B3) which helps convert carbohydrates into glucose, the fuel your body burns for energy.
Coffee also contains potassium which helps maintain normal fluid levels in our cells and magnesium which is needed for muscles and nerves to work properly, to keep blood sugar and blood pressure at the right level, and to make protein, bone, and DNA.
Coffee is high in anti-oxidants which are great for overall health. Anti-oxidants help to reduce cell damage in our body and can act as an anti-inflammatory. Lowering inflammation reduces the risk of developing a number of chronic diseases.
Drinking coffee has also been linked to lower risk of cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Drinking at least one cup of coffee a day can decrease your risk of developing colon cancer, which is the 4th leading cause of death in women.
Coffee drinking has also been linked to a lower risk of developing chronic liver disease and cirhossis.
Some studies have shown that drinking coffee can lead to a longer life span and decrease your risk of premature death from all causes by 25-30% compared to non coffee drinkers.
Women who drink coffee are also less likely to suffer from depression than those that don’t.
Drinking coffee can also increase your metabolic rate and help burn fat, helping you maintain a healthy weight.
The Bad
There is a limit to the amount of coffee you should consume. Because caffeine is a stimulant, excess coffee consumption has been linked to sleep disturbances, anxiety and gastroinstestinal upsets.
It’s generally advised that you limit caffeine intake to 400mg of caffeine per day. How much caffeine is in a coffee will depend on the type of coffee beans, whether you are drinking instant coffee or espresso and whether you are making it at home or getting it from a cafe. But as a rough guide, 400mg equates to 4 cups of coffee if you’re having a single shot or two cups of double shot coffee.
Too much caffeine can also impact your body’s ability to process calcium, increasing your risk of developing osteoporosis.
In working out how much coffee you should have also be aware of other sources of caffeine in your diet such as energy drinks, tea, soft drinks and chocolate.
The time of the day you drink coffee also matters. On average it takes around 5-6 hours to process the caffeine in a cup of coffee. Hence why we’re told to avoid coffee from mid-afternoon onwards. But caffeine affects different people in different ways. Some people can have an espresso after a late night meal, just before bed and have no trouble sleeping at all. But others have a genetic variation which slows down the speed at which caffeine is processed. For them, a coffee at 12pm may lead to a bad night’s sleep. If you’re unsure if coffee is affecting your sleep try keeping a sleep and coffee diary over a few weeks.
Many of us start out the day with a coffee, but it turns out this may not be the best option. Cortisol is the hormone that controls how alert we are. Cortisol levels are at their highest for the first couple of hours after you wake up. So technically you shouldn’t need a coffee first thing to feel alert and energised, and having caffeine at this time may end up reducing your resistance to caffeine, meaning your need to drink more to have the same effect. It’s better to hold out until mid-morning for that first cup.
The ugly
Caffeine can have a blood pressure raising effect, although this tends to be limited to people who are otherwise prone to high blood pressure or who don’t regularly consume caffeine. The effects are temporary and normally wear off in around 4 hours.
What is less clear is caffeine’s long term effect on blood pressure. If you do have high blood pressure or are at risk of developing it, it’s probably best to limit your caffeine consumption.
Adding sugar or flavoured syrups particularly with full fat milk, can dramatically increase the amount of calories in a coffe, negating some or all of the health benefits.
Despite the hype around bullet proof coffee, there’s no evidence that adding butter or coconut oil to your coffee has any health benefits. It’s likely to do you much more harm than good. Bullet proof coffee contains a significant amount of calories and when used as a breakfast substitute is likely to mean you’re missing out on valuable nutrients. The 14gm of saturated fat in a bullet proof coffee may also raise levels of LDL or “bad” cholesterol making you at higher risk of developing heart disease.
While caffeine itself isn’t physically addictive, the effects of it can be psychologically addictive. You don’t want to use coffee as a bandaid to disguise other health issues such as fatigue. If you’re regularly relying on coffee to get you through the day, it’s worth visiting a health professional to determine if you have any underlying problems.
Summary
Coffee does have a lot of health benefits. Just make sure you don’t overdo it, don’t negate these benefits by adding too much sugar or fat and if you need to use coffee as a crutch to get you through the day it’s probably worth investigating whether you have any underlying health issues that need to be addressed.
How to make a great coffee
If you’re one of the many people who (like me) invested in an espresso machine during lock down and are still struggling to make as good a coffee as you get from your local cafe, here are some great tips for upping your coffee making skills.
