Loaded with antioxidants and beneficial nutrients to improve your health, coffee turns out to be quite healthy. We provide a list of 13 health benefits of coffee from studies that show that coffee drinkers have a much lower risk of several serious diseases, make you smarter and improve energy and vitality.
1. Coffee can Improve Energy Levels and Make You Smarter
Coffee increases energy levels and helps people feel less tired (1, 2), because it contains stimulant called caffeine, the most commonly consumed psychoactive substance in the world (3).
As soon as you gulp that cup of coffee down, the caffeine gets absorbed into your bloodstream and eventually travels into the brain (4), where it blocks an inhibitory neurotransmitter called Adenosine and the amount of other neurotransmitters like norepinephrine and dopamine actually increases, leading to neurons firing more than usual (5, 6).
Several controlled humans studies show that coffee improves many brain functions like: memory, mood, reaction times, energy levels, general cognitive function and vigilance (7, 8, 9).
Low Down: Caffeine causes the stimulant effect by blocking an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain to various aspects of brain functions like energy levels, mood, etc.
2. Coffee can Help You Burn Fat
Did you know? Caffeine is found in almost every commercial fat burning supplement There’s a good reason for that… caffeine is one of the very few natural substances that have actually been proven to aid fat burning, boosting the metabolic rate by 3-11% (10, 11).
In several other studies caffeine shows to specifically increase fat burning, by as much as 10% in obese individuals and 29% in lean people (12, 13). Of course, the downside, is that long-term coffee drinkers that these effects get diminished.
Low Down: Several studies show that caffeine can boost the metabolic rate and increase fat burning.
3. The Caffeine Can Drastically Improve Physical Performance
Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system and causes signals to the fat cells to break down body fat (14, 15).
Caffeine also increases Epinephrine (Adrenaline) levels in the blood (16, 17) –the “fight or flight” hormone, which prompts our bodies to get ready for intense physical exertion.
Caffeine makes the fat cells break down body fat, releasing them into the blood as free fatty acids available for converting into glucose to be used as fuel (18, 19).
The above effects combines on average to improve physical performance by as much as 11-12% (20, 21).
Drinking a strong cup of coffee about a half an hour before you head to the gym makes all the more sense now.
Low Down: Caffeine can increase adrenaline levels and release fatty acids from the fat tissues, which can also lead to significant improvements in physical performance.
4. There are many Essential Nutrients in Coffee
Coffee is more than just flavoured dark water, because many of the nutrients in the coffee beans do make it into the final drink.
A single cup of coffee contains (22):
- Riboflavin (Vitamin B2): 11% of the RDA.
- Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5): 6% of the RDA.
- Manganese and Potassium: 3% of the RDA.
- Magnesium and Niacin (B3): 2% of the RDA.
This may not seem like a lot, however most people drink more than one cup per day, so those 3-4 cups add up quickly.
Low Down: Coffee contains quite a few important nutrients, including Riboflavin, Pantothenic Acid, Manganese, Potassium, Magnesium and Niacin.
5. Coffee May Lower Type II Diabetes Risk
Worldwide, Type II diabetes is an enormous health problem afflicting about 300 million people, who suffer from elevated blood sugars due to insulin resistance or an inability to actually secrete insulin.
For some reason, coffee drinkers have a significantly reduced risk of developing Type II diabetes. Several studies show that people who drink the most coffee have a 23-50% lower risk of getting Type II Diabetes and in one study the reduction is as much as 67% (23, 24, 25, 26, 27).
A massive multi-study review, took into account data from 18 studies with a total of 457,922 individuals and each daily cup of coffee was associated with about a 7% reduced risk of developing Type II diabetes (28).
Low Down: Several studies observe that coffee drinkers have a much lower risk of getting Type II Diabetes, a serious disease that currently afflicts about 300 million people worldwide.
6. Coffee May Protect You From Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common neurodegenerative disease and the leading cause of dementia worldwide. This disease normally affects people over 65 years of age and of course, there is no known cure for Alzheimer’s at the moment.
There are several things you can do to prevent the disease from showing up in the first place. Eating healthy and exercising, but drinking coffee is shown to be quite effective as well.
Quite a few studies show that coffee drinkers have up to a 65% lower risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease (29, 30, 31).
Low Down: Coffee drinkers have a much lower risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease, which is a leading cause of dementia worldwide.
7. Caffeine May Lower The Risk of Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, right after Alzheimer’s, which is caused when dopamine-generating neurons die in the brain.
As with Alzheimer’s, there is currently no known cure, which makes prevention an important focus.
Studies have shown that coffee drinkers have a significantly lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, ranging from 32-60% (32, 33, 34, 35). The caffeine itself is causing the effect of risk lowering and therefore when you drink decaf, you don’t have a lower risk of Parkinson’s either (36, 37).
Low Down: Coffee drinkers have up to a 60% lower risk of getting Parkinson’s disease, the second most common neurodegenerative disorder.
8. Coffee Appears to Have Protective Effects on The Liver
Our amazing organ the liver performs hundreds of important functions in the body. Many common diseases primarily affect the liver, including hepatitis, fatty liver disease, etc. and can lead to a condition called cirrhosis, in which the liver has been largely replaced by scar tissue.
Coffee may protect against cirrhosis and people who drink 4 or more cups per day have up to an 80% lower risk (38, 39, 40).
Low Down: Coffee drinkers have a much lower risk of developing cirrhosis, which can be caused by several diseases that affect the liver.
9. Coffee Can Fight Depression and Make You Happier
Depression causes significantly reduced quality of life and is a serious mental disorder, incredibly common with about 4.1% of people in the U.S. currently meet the criteria for clinical depression (41).
A Harvard study published in 2011, showed that women who drank 4 or more cups per day had a 20% lower risk of becoming depressed (42).
Another large study with 208,424 people found that those who drank 4 or more cups per day were 53% less likely to commit suicide (43).
Low Down: Coffee appears to lower the risk of developing depression and may dramatically reduce the risk of suicide.
10. Coffee Drinkers Have a Lower Risk of Some Types of Cancer
Cancer is characterised by uncontrolled growth of cells in the body and is one of the leading causes of death in the world today. Coffee appears to be protective against two types of cancer – liver cancer and colo-rectal cancer. Liver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in the world, while colorectal cancer ranks fourth (44).
Several studies show that coffee drinkers have up to a 40% lower risk of liver cancer (45, 46). One large study of 489,706 individuals found that those who drank 4-5 cups of coffee per day had a 15% lower risk of colorectal cancer (47).
Low Down: Liver and colorectal cancer are the 3rd and 4th leading causes of cancer death worldwide. Coffee drinkers have a lower risk of both.
11. Coffee Does Not Cause Heart Disease and May Lower The Risk of Stroke
Many health alarmists mention that caffeine can increase blood pressure. Whilst this is true, the effect is small (3-4 mm/Hg) and usually goes away if you drink coffee on a regular basis (48, 49).
The effect may persist in some people, so keep that in mind if you have elevated blood pressure (50, 51).
That being said, many studies do not support the myth that coffee raises the risk of heart disease (52, 53). In fact, there is some evidence that women who drink coffee have a reduced risk of heart disease (54). Also, some studies also show that coffee drinkers have a 20% lower risk of stroke (55, 56).
Low Down: Coffee may cause mild increases in blood pressure, which usually diminish over time. Coffee drinkers do not have an increased risk of heart disease, but a slightly lower risk of stroke.
12. Coffee May Help You Live Longer
When you add up the above facts, it makes sense that coffee drinkers are less likely to get many diseases, and therefore coffee could help you live a longer and healthier life.
There are actually a few studies showing that coffee drinkers have a lower risk of death. In two very large studies, drinking coffee was associated with a 20% lower risk of death in men and a 26% lower risk of death in women, over a period of 18-24 years (57).
This effect appears to be particularly strong in Type II diabetics. In one study, diabetics who drank coffee had a 30% lower risk of death during a 20 year study period (58).
Low Down: Several studies show that coffee drinkers live longer and have a lower risk of premature death.
13. Coffee is The Biggest Source of Antioxidants in The Western Diet
In the standard western diet, coffee may actually be the healthiest aspect of the diet, because coffee contains a massive amount of antioxidants. Some studies show that most people get more antioxidants from coffee than both fruits and vegetables combined (59, 60, 61).
All in all, when you take all the above facts and studies into consideration, it turns out that coffee is probably one of the healthiest beverages on the planet. Period!
