Americans spent $11 billion on coffee last year. That’s about $1,000 per worker per year. Whew, that’s a lot of coffee brewing. About $1.4 billion of that was organic coffee.
Fifty-four percent of Americans drink coffee every day. Coffee has many anti-oxidants and for some reason, those anti-oxidants are absorbed more readily through a coffee source. Anti-oxidants are either natural or man-made substances that delay or prevent cell damage.
“There is certainly much more good news than bad news, in terms of coffee and health,” says Frank Hu, MD, MPH, PhD, nutrition and epidemiology professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Cirrhosis and Coffee Drinking
A large-scale study revealed that drinking one cup of coffee a day, lowered one’s chances 20 percent of developing cirrhosis of the liver. Cirrhosis is an auto-immune disease caused by excessive alcohol use. This alcohol abuse could end in cancer or liver failure.
According to The Guardian, Arthur L Klatsky, the lead author of the study, "Consuming coffee seems to have some protective benefits against alcoholic cirrhosis, and the more coffee a person consumes the less risk they seem to have of being hospitalized or dying of alcoholic cirrhosis."
Coffee has also been linked to decreasing the chances of developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Dementia
A study revealed that people over the age of 65 with blood caffeine levels higher than those who did not drink coffee, did not develop Alzheimer’s disease for two to four years later than the other non-coffee drinkers.
"We are not saying that moderate coffee consumption will completely protect people from Alzheimer's disease. However, we firmly believe that moderate coffee consumption can appreciably reduce your risk of Alzheimer's or delay its onset," said Dr. Chuanhai Cao, neuroscientist at University of South Florida and co-author of the study.
One Swedish and Finnish study showed that people who drank three to five cups of coffee a day for 20 years were 65 percent less likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
“For Parkinson’s disease, the data have always been very consistent: higher consumption of coffee is associated with decreased risk of Parkinson’s,” Hu said. That seems to be due to caffeine, though exactly how that works isn't clear, Hu notes.
Coffee could lessen the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Coffee is known to lessen the chances of developing Parkinson’s disease, but there is one study that demonstrates how coffee helps sufferers control their movements.
Suicide and Coffee Consumption
Those who drank 4 or more cups of coffee a day were ten percent less likely to suffer from depression. The proposed reason as to why -- coffee’s high level of anti-oxidants.
Harvard School of Public Health did a study which showed that drinking two to four cups of coffee a day, cut the risk of suicides by 50 percent. Coffee can act as a mild anti-depressant for many people. Researchers have found that caffeine aids in the production of noradrenaline, dopamine and serotonin, all neurotransmitters.
Diabetes and Java Use
People who drank more than four cups of coffee a day had a smaller chance of developing type 2 diabetes – by as much as 50 percent! This according to a study by the American Chemical Society. Each subsequent cup cut the risk another seven percent.
"The vast majority of those studies have shown a benefit of coffee on the prevention of diabetes. And now there is also evidence that decaffeinated coffee may have the same benefit as regular coffee,” Hu said.
Coffee is also high in magnesium and chromium, both used by the body to help regulate insulin use, which then in turn controls diabetes.
Coffee and Athletes
Caffeine increases the amount of fatty acids in your bloodstream, allowing athletes to burn that form of fuel first before the need to tap into carbohydrate reserves. A cup of coffee before a workout could spur you on just the needed amount to get you moving. That’s for us non-athletes who just want to stay in shape.
Several studies have confirmed that caffeine can help boost the metabolic rate by three to 11 percent. Caffeine is one of a few natural metabolic boosters available. There have been other studies that found obese people increased fat burning by about 10 percent and 29 percent for lean people.
A Kaiser Permanente study found that of those who drank two to three cups of coffee a day, they were 20 percent less likely to be hospitalized for abnormal heart rhythms, possibly a precursor to heart attacks and strokes.
Coffee and the Brain Tweaking
We all know about the jolt coffee can give you late at night when you have the drowsies. But did you know that there’s a lot of circuitry working in your brain at the same time? Logical thinking, attention span, and reaction time all improve. That’s all the hallmarks of intelligent thinking kicking in. Caffeine travels in the bloodstream to the brain and this inhibits the actions of a neurotransmitter adenosine. When this happens, dopamine and norepinephrine levels increase and so does the neural firing of brain circuits. Voila!
Women and Skin Cancer Risks
A large-scale, long-term study of both men and women showed that if you are a woman, you reduce your risk of skin cancer if you drink three or more cups of coffee a day.
So, in conclusion, coffee should be a contender for beverage of the year based upon the health benefits it offers to many people. That said, remember that every cup o’ joe has the potential for unhealthy side effects for you. So moderation is in order, at least until you know how your body reacts to coffee.