I’ve always been a coffee drinker. I was #blessed enough to have parents that made me iced mochas every morning in middle school and never once hesitated when going for my first sip. Health risks have always been thought of as “something that would never happen to me.” Research findings are constantly released with various impacts that caffeine and coffee have on health, and it seems time I learn what I put inside my body every morning.
I’ll just come straight out with the facts:
1. 3-4 cups of black coffee a day provide most health benefits
2. Studies have shown a reduced risk of melanoma, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, type 2 diabetes, liver disease, prostate cancer, Alzheimer’s, computer-related back pain, and metabolic and neurological disorders
3. High coffee consumption during pregnancy is associated with low birth weight, pre-term births, and stillbirths
4. To receive benefits from coffee, you should avoid saturating calorie-heavy creamers, sugars, artificial sugars, and flavors to your coffee drinks
5. Coffee drinking significantly lowers your risk of death
Based on these few facts it seems that my expensive Starbucks addiction is keeping me healthy, or that’s what I will continue to say to myself!
While coffee provides such a long list of benefits, it is also important to recognize that caffeine and coffee have not received the most glowing record over the year. Since the 1500s, coffee has been studied and criticized for its ambiguous health effects. After hundreds of years of research flip-flopping from good to bad, coffee seems to have a pretty good rap.
But really, what would I do without my morning coffee? Or 3 AM cram sesh?