Your Coffee Habit: Helpful or Harmful? Part I: The Pros

Ah your morning cup of joe—that reassuring mug of life-giving-liquid on those dark, chilly mornings when you’d rather shut off the alarm and pull the covers over your head. That necessary pre-workout jumpstart when you hit the mid-day slump and consider going straight from work to the couch instead of the gym. A lot of us have an emotional connection to our coffee— it’s a ritual we look forward to every morning, maybe even afternoon. And many of us have a physical attachment to it— we couldn’t even fathom getting through the day without it.

You’re not alone: Well over half of the adult American population drinks coffee every day, with the average daily consumption being 3 cups per day (1). Coffee is not only one of the most widely-consumed beverages, it is also one of the most-studied, particularly because of its caffeine content. Thousands of studies have been done on coffee, some hyping its health-promoting benefits, while others showing correlations with issues like anxiety, hypertension, and insomnia.

So how healthy is our dependence on coffee? What are the benefits and the drawbacks? How can we know if our daily coffee habit is helping us, or hurting us? Hey, we spend $18 million per year on coffee (1), we have a right to know!

The pros:

1- Coffee is filled with micronutrients and health-boosting antioxidants.

Micronutrients—vitamins, minerals, and other phytonutrients—are key for a healthy body. And our bodies need a lot, preferably from natural sources. Since coffee is a plant, it is rich in nutrients, and when we brew it, those nutrients run off the coffee beans into the water we drink.

For example, one cup (8 oz.) of coffee contains:

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): 11% of the RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance)
Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid): 6% of the RDA
Vitamin B1 (Thiamin): 2% of the RDA
Vitamin B3 (Niacin): 2% of the RDA
Manganese: 3% of the RDA
Potassium: 3% of the RDA
Magnesium: 2% of the RDA (2)

Bonus: Throw some grass-fed butter or ghee into your coffee for a boost of fat-soluble vitamins and omega-3 fats!

Many of the nutrients in coffee act as antioxidants, which work to reverse oxidative damage in our bodies caused by free radicals. While fruits and vegetables are super rich in antioxidants, one study found that the greatest contributor of antioxidants in Americans’ diets is coffee (3), (although probably because we consume more of it than fruits & veggies, so think about that.) However, coffee does contain numerous antioxidants such as caffeic acid, eugenol, gamma-tocopherol, and tannic acid. It is particularly high in an antioxidant group called flavonoids, which also possess antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and even anti-tumor properties!

2- Consumption of coffee is associated with a longer life.

One Harvard study found that people who drank 3 to 5 cups of coffee per day (including decaf) had around a 15% lower risk of premature death, compared to those who didn’t drink coffee. Moderate coffee consumption was also correlated with reduced risk of death from diabetes, heart disease, neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, and even suicide (4). Another study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, looked at over 400,000 individuals and found that those who drank coffee had a significantly lower risk of dying over the 12-13 year study period (5).

Also, many studies show correlations between coffee consumption and decreased risk of life-threatening disease One study found that one cup of coffee per day was associated with an estimated 20% decreased risk of stroke (6). And a recent meta-analysis showed an association between drinking 2 or more cups of coffee per day and a reduced risk of developing Type 2 diabetes (7).

So does coffee make you live longer? Well, the associations are clear—but remember, association doesn’t mean cause and effect. Either way, coffee is clearly health-protective. Why? Well, we can’t really point to just one reason. It’s likely due to the beneficial compounds in coffee that help keep the body healthy by fighting inflammation, lessening oxidative damage (which is a mechanism behind cancer and aging), promoting insulin sensitivity, and keeping the heart healthy and the brain happy. So coffee’s life-protective benefits result from a combination of factors.

3- Brain gains! Drinking coffee boosts your mental performance.

Coffee’s primary active ingredient, caffeine, is a central nervous system stimulant and therefore, a mental performance enhancer. It essentially changes the way your body works! When caffeine gets to the brain (roughly 30-45 minutes after you drink coffee), it suppresses the inhibitory neurotransmitter adenosine. Adenosine acts as a central nervous system depressant, promoting sleep and suppressing excitement and alertness.

Caffeine binds to the receptors in the brain that adenosine normally bind to—therefore, if caffeine is bound, adenosine can’t bind. Therefore, the caffeine keeps you alert and adenosine can’t make you sleepy (8). Plus, when adenosine is blocked, stimulating neurotransmitters like glutamate and dopamine are released (9).

The effects? Increased alertness, improved learning, quickened reaction time, and improved overall cognitive function (10, 11, 12). Coffee can even improve your mood—caffeine helps to boost levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin (12). Yes, your morning cup really does make you happy!

4- Coffee helps to enhance physical performance and metabolism.

Since coffee increases levels of epinephrine (adrenaline) in the blood, it helps to prepare your body for intense activity and exertion. Having a cup of coffee about an hour before you exercise can help to improve your performance by around 11-12% (13, 14).

Coffee also can help rev up the metabolism and assist with fat burning. Since caffeine is a stimulant, it can send signals to the body to break down body fat, to be used for fuel (15). This translates to an increase in metabolic rate. And, because caffeine is shown to increase insulin sensitivity, drinking it can have some positive effects on blood sugar levels and how the body uses fuel, translating to improved fat-burning.

5- Incorporating a morning ritual that involves coffee makes you a more productive and centered person.

Since 65% of coffee consumption takes place during breakfast hours (1), it’s likely that coffee is a part of your morning ritual. Brewing, pouring, mixing (maybe blending) your coffee each morning takes some time—even if you don’t brew your own, driving or walking to a local coffee shop still requires you to reserve a chunk of your morning. And whether you drink your cup at home in quiet, while getting dressed, on the way to the gym or work, or at your desk—you likely have some sort of set routine that’s involved in your caffeinating process.

A ritual can look very different from person to person, but having one of your own has been found to be very important. Setting aside some time each day for a dedicated task—especially something soothing like sitting with a cup of coffee—gets us into a routine, establishing some purpose for our days. It provides routine and helps us to focus, prepare, and be more productive (especially before high-pressure tasks, like work, a competition, or a grueling workout).

Morning rituals especially give us some me-time before we begin our crazy, hectic days. So instead of rushing to take your coffee to-go, think about waking up just 10 minutes earlier to have some alone time with your coffee.

So… it’s all good, right? Our coffee-drinking-obsession is keeping us alive, healthy, productive, fat-burning machines? Well… there’s always two sides to any story. Don’t give up your coffee habit just yet! But stay tuned later this week for some important drawbacks you may want to consider.

References

1- http://www.statisticbrain.com/coffee-drinking-statistics/

2- http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/beverages/3898/2

3- http://jn.nutrition.org/content/134/3/562.short

4 http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/moderate-coffee-drinking-may-lower-risk-of-premature-death/

5- http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1112010

6-http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/03/14/STROKEAHA.111.677500.full.pdf+html

7- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24150256

8- http://pharmrev.aspetjournals.org/content/51/1/83.full

9- http://www.jneurosci.org/content/22/15/6321.short

10- http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v17/n2/full/nn.3623.html

11- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12424548