I have to start by saying I don’t drink coffee and not for the reasons many of you may think. I worked at McDonald’s as my first job. On the weekends we would set out pots of coffee on a warmer for people to refill their own cups. Without fail, at least one pot would be set back on the warmer with just a bit of coffee left in the pot only to burn. It’s because of the horrible smell of burnt coffee that I don’t drink coffee. Just the smell of coffee takes me back to those days of smelling burnt coffee.
It may sound ridiculous, but that has kept me from drinking the stuff all my life. I’ve been told by many people that coffee tastes great, but look at the money I’m saving by not needing to buy a coffee all the time (that’s for another blog post).
Today I wanted to talk about the health benefits of coffee. I recently read an article which discussed how having up to 6 cups of coffee a day could be beneficial. In the fast-paced world we live in today, some people would just read the headline and decide they can drink more coffee without reading the whole story.
Studies have shown coffee does have many benefits. It’s high in antioxidants, could lower risk of death from heart difficulties, and possibly lower the risk of diabetes. Some studies have shown coffee to help prevent certain cancers.
Very few studies actually show coffee to be detrimental to health but mention the fact that high amounts of caffeine can cause restlessness and irritability. One of the other factors not mentioned in much of the research I read was the fact of the added milk and/or sugar. These extra calories can be the detrimental part, especially for those who are wanting to lose weight. It only matters a little bit about what type of milk you use (depending on how many coffees you have a day), but the amount of sugar you add can have a huge impact on weight loss.
One of the articles even mentioned that those who drink coffee live longer because they take breaks from work and get away from the stress more than non-coffee drinkers.
While I am not a coffee drinker myself, I don’t believe drinking coffee in moderation (which we will call 2-3 coffees a day – based information I found in articles) is a bad thing and could actually be healthy. So go ahead and have a coffee.
