The World Research Institute estimates that the average adult American drinks 26 gallons of coffee annually. While that sounds like a lot, over a year it comes to a bit more than one 8 ounce cup a day. Obviously, we take our coffee drinking very seriously!
If you are anything like me you really don’t get started the mornings until you have had your coffee. My routine always includes at least one cup, and more frequently, two cups of coffee before the day can really get started. I have done this for years, despite reading periodic warning about the effects of coffee on my general health.
And now there comes word of new medical research indicating that. When compared to those who don’t drink coffee, we dedicated coffee drinkers are probably less likely to have Parkinson’s disease, dementia, or type 2 diabetes. We are also statistically less likely to have certain cancers, problems with heart rhythms and strokes.
While this is all good news to me, the weakness of this research is that it was not rigorously conducted. Rather than being a long term study focusing on one group of people who drank coffee for science and comparing them with a control group who never touched the stuff, this study’s conclusions came from questionnaires given to a random sampling of people asking about their coffee habits. Because of the lack of a control group, this study cannot show cause and effect so there is the real possibility that these health benefits were also influenced by other factors like healthier diets and more physical exercise.
So, even though there isn’t any really solid scientific proof that coffee alone is responsible for these health benefits, the signs are certainly there. And also are some cautions about some potential health drawbacks of too much coffee.
The benefits of coffee are not all linked directly to the caffeine content. Coffee also contains both magnesium and chromium which help the body to use insulin, a natural hormone, which controls the levels of blood sugar. This is the main reason why coffee is seen as helping to prevent type 2 diabetes.
On the other side of the question, all of us coffee drinkers should take care not to misuse coffee as a stress reliever during the day. Drinking too much coffee has been shown to increase both blood pressure levels and adrenaline. Both of which are the exact opposite of what is needed to relax.
Nonetheless, as research continues, we coffee drinkers can take pleasure in our morning coffee routine knowing that as long as we enjoy our coffee in moderation, we are actually helping, and not injuring, our helping our bodies by living a healthy lifestyle.
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