A morning cup of coffee is much more than a delicious shot of caffeine.
While health conscious folks often forgo their cup of joe for healthier options like tea, the reality is that coffee’s health benefits don’t lag far behind.
In fact, when done correctly (more on this later), coffee can be an easy and pleasurable way to improve your mind, body, and soul.
The Physical and Psychological Benefits of Drinking Coffee
Coffee isn’t just roasted bean water – it’s a complex concoction of thousands of different chemicals – many of which have shown to have positive effects on human health.
A substantial body of evidence looking at moderate coffee consumption – around 3-5 cups daily – suggests it improves nearly every organ system in our body.
A heart-healthy choice
Coffee consumption has been shown to decrease your risk of developing high blood pressure, heart failure, and an irregular heart beat. Considering that heart failure affects nearly 7 million people in the US annually, enjoying a cup of coffee seems like a simple practice to adopt to stave off such a debilitating condition.
Coffee and Your Pancreas
Concerned about your blood sugar? Coffee may protect against the development of type-2 diabetes. Epidemiological studies suggest that individuals who drink coffee regularly have lower rates of diabetes, with the response being dose dependent – meaning, individuals that drink more coffee see lower rates of diabetes than those that drink less.
This is your brain on coffee
As a caffeinated beverage, coffee can have numerous, albeit mostly temporary, benefits on the nervous system like enhancing focus, improving alertness and reaction times, decreasing depression and improving overall mood. So, if you’re looking to stay sharp and focused during the day, a warm mug can offer you more than just comfort.
How Does it Work?
While researchers aren’t exactly sure why coffee has these benefits, there are a few proposed mechanisms:
Polyphenols
Coffee is rich in plant compounds called polyphenols. These polyphenols serve as antioxidants in the body, helping to repair the damage our cells, proteins, and DNA accumulate over time. This means coffee has similar health promoting effects to other polyphenol rich foods like broccoli, blueberries, grapes, and dark chocolate.
Interestingly – or perhaps sadly – coffee is one of the primary sources of polyphenols in Western diets since we often don’t eat enough of the foods mentioned above.
Gut Microbiome
The second way in which coffee may improve our health is through its ability to modulate our gut microbiome – the trillions of microorganisms that reside within our digestive tract.
While we have barely scratched the surface of how exactly the microbiome influences overall health, the current research suggests the connection between the two may be critical, and coffee may play a positive role in either burgeoning or bolstering our beneficial gut bugs.
For example, recent studies have shown that coffee consumption may allow certain bacterial strains – the ones which help us actually use polyphenols – to flourish.
The Spiritual Benefits of Coffee
While the physical and psychological effects of coffee lie in its chemistry, its spiritual benefits are a by-product of its consumption being experiential.
Drinking coffee is a ritual, and many would agree that taking part in it can be nearly as pleasurable as the taste itself. Whether alone or with friends, enjoying a cup of coffee can offer one a moment of peace, mental clarity, and even catharsis.
In this vein, enjoying a cup of coffee can be akin to a meditative practice, helping us to momentarily reduce stress and anxiety, recalibrating our focus, and offering us a sense of certainty in uncertain times (I don’t know what today will bring, but I know I’ll start my day with a cup of coffee).
Not to mention, when you couple the experience of drinking coffee with the practice of actually brewing it yourself, the ritual only becomes more intricate and purposeful.
Practical Tips for Harnessing the Benefits
You’ve learned how coffee can improve your physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being. Now you just need to understand how to avoid the common pitfalls of coffee consumption to maximize its benefits.
Keep it Simple
It’s important to remember that the health promoting effects of coffee come from the coffee itself, and not any additives. While small amounts of milk and sugar are ok on occasion, they will essentially erase any benefits in large amounts. Aim to be a purist – steer clear of the high calorie and highly processed coffee drinks popular at coffee chains.
Find Your Sweet Spot
While the caffeine in coffee has positive health effects at small to moderate doses, too much caffeine is actually detrimental to health. Anxiety, energy crashes, jitteriness, and insomnia are all consequences of too much caffeine.
And, given that a person’s sensitivity to caffeine is highly individual, it’s important to start small and adjust your dose up or down to achieve your desired response. If two cups of coffee give you the shakes, dial it back to one. On the other hand, if a single cup of coffee doesn’t give you the boost you’re looking for, feel free to increase the dose until you feel that invigorating warmth that makes a cup of coffee so coveted.
With so many benefits, coffee is more than just a delightful pick-me-up. It’s a potent tool for elevating your physical and psychological health. From warding off cancer and heart disease to enhancing your cognition and mood, coffee is a remarkable health promoting drink that not only nourishes your body, but your soul as well..
So, if you’re not already drinking coffee, what are you waiting for? And if you are a habitual coffee drinker – cheers!
Leave a Reply