Coffee: The World’s Favorite Beverage with Surprising Health Benefits
Probably the most popular beverage in the world is coffee. Many people make it a daily morning routine because of the caffeine, which gives them a fantastic energy boost and cerebral boost. Coffee is widely consumed across a wide range of civilizations for regular, stimulatory, and social reasons. You might become shaky at the idea of beginning your day without a hot cup of coffee. At least compared to, say, your two-hour-per-day Instagram obsession, this is a mostly positive vice.
Coffee and Heart Health
There is a lot of evidence today that coffee is healthy, within reason. According to an American Heart Association review of three studies published in Circulation: Heart Failure, drinking one to three cups of black caffeinated coffee per day may lower the risk of heart failure by 5 to 12% per cup. According to a study published in the Journal of Nutrition, Italians who enjoy espresso and drink three to four cups of Italian-style coffee—that is, coffee other than white chocolate mocha—are less likely to die than others who drink little or nothing.
Another study, published in Ageing Research Reviews, reveals that moderate coffee drinking (2-3 cups a day) could be a simple yet effective way to support healthy aging by adding an average of 1.8 years to a person’s healthy life expectancy. An investigation in Clinical Nutrition found individuals who consumed an extra cup of coffee per day had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, potentially by lowering insulin resistance.
Lastly, a study in the British Medical Journal found a link between coffee and a lower risk for some cancers, as well as for cardiovascular disease and death from any cause.
Bioactive Compounds in Coffee
There are a few possible reasons why coffee, especially black coffee, could be good for our tickers and longevity. Brewed coffee contains various bioactive compounds like chlorogenic acids that may have strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and help improve metabolic health. Since so many people drink coffee and don’t consume enough other antioxidant-rich foods like fruits and vegetables, it’s safe to assume coffee is a big contributor to the antioxidants Americans consume.
Coffee and Your Gut Health
It may also boost your health indirectly by keeping your microbiome in good working order. A new study in Nature Microbiology has revealed that coffee consumption significantly influences the gut microbiome, promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria. Both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee enhanced gut health due to their polyphenol content.
Coffee and Fitness Performance
How Coffee May Boost Your Workout Performance
A lot of people will down an espresso before hitting the gym as a means to give them a little edge. Caffeine can indeed give your workouts a boost via a few different mechanisms, including lessening the perception of effort and fatigue and increasing muscle strength and power. (It seems that caffeine can lend an assist to both endurance and strength workouts.) But there is a good chance you won’t get the optimal performance-boosting dose from coffee alone.
The Optimal Caffeine Dosage for Performance
The recommended athletic protocol based on research, which most people fail to follow, is to take in three to six milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight, which works out to 240 mg to 490 mg for a 180-pound guy. That amount of caffeine could require you to guzzle the back of a jug of mud. Fingers crossed you don’t have an overactive bladder.
Brewed coffee typically ranges from 60 mg to 180 mg depending on what kind of beans you’re using, how they’re prepared, how big your cup is, and so on. (Ounce for ounce espresso is more concentrated in caffeine than regular coffee.) The caffeine in a Starbucks coffee can be quite different than the amount in a Dunkin’ Donuts brew and also different than what you would make at home. So the issue here is that it can be tough to know how much caffeine you are getting from coffee and you might need to drink more than you think to reach the recommended dose for performance benefits. Downing 4 cups of coffee before hitting the squat rack might not be the best plan if you don’t want to be running to the restroom.
Yes, it’s feasible that lower levels of caffeine that you would get from drinking a cup of coffee will give you a boost, but perhaps just not as much as what would occur with higher intakes. Another issue is that people frequently exposed to caffeine may need the higher end of this dosage range to experience a workout boost than those who aren’t exposed to the stimulant.
For this reason, some people will turn to supplements like pills, gums, and chews before an important workout for a more controlled dose and to be more confident that enough is being consumed. The key here is enough and not too much. A protocol for some is to combine brewed coffee and supplements to get up to the necessary caffeine level.
Don’t Go Overboard: Coffee and Its Risks
The Risks of Excessive Coffee Consumption
When it comes to coffee, it might be a case of diminishing returns. One study found that among more than 300,000 adults, those who consumed six or more cups of coffee per day over the long term had a lipid profile including greater levels of Apo-B and LDL cholesterol associated with a higher risk of heart disease. An expansive report in the New England Journal of Medicine says having two to five cups of coffee each day is linked to reduced risk of some chronic diseases, but taking in caffeine beyond this point may bring with it some unwelcome consequences such as anxiety, insomnia, or psychomotor agitation.
Researchers found that heavy caffeine consumption (400 mg or more a day) regularly, which can also come from other sources like energy drinks, may lead to elevated blood pressure and heart rates due to the impact on the autonomic nervous system—even in otherwise healthy people. It was recommended that most people limit caffeine intake to 400 milligrams daily, which is about double what the typical American guy consumes in a day.