Evidence shows that coffee is healthy for you

Studies demonstrating coffee’s beneficial health effects are piling up so fast it’s hard to keep track. One conclusion: Coffee can help you live longer.

According to various experts, coffee and caffeine:

• Reduce risk of heart disease, cancer and multiple sclerosis
• Boost semen production
• Invigorate
• Enhance memory
• Alleviate fatigue
• Reduce the risk of kidney stones
• Help alleviate migraine headaches 
• Enhance the effect of over-the-counter painkillers

And it tastes great. The caffeine in coffee is slightly addictive, but it is not a dangerous, life-destroying drug like opiates or meth.

A Healthline.com article [1] says coffee's and caffeine's benefits include:

• Increasing your energy and making you smarter
• Helping to burn fat, up to 29 percent in thin people
• Dramatically enhancing physical or athletic performance
• Lowering the risk of Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's, and liver disease
• Possibly protecting people from dementia and Alzheimer's
• Fighting depression and increasing happiness
• Lowering risk of cancer, heart disease, and stroke
• Providing more antioxidants than any other substance in the Western diet

The article says it makes sense if coffee helps you live longer, which studies have shown it does. The article states:

In two very large studies, drinking coffee was associated with a 20% reduced risk of death in men and a 26% decreased risk of death in women, over 18–24 years.

This effect appears particularly strong in people with type 2 diabetes. In one 20-year study, individuals with diabetes who drank coffee had a 30% lower risk of death.

Scientific studies show coffee's benefits

A study of more than 1.2 million people found that folks who drink 3 to 5 cups of black coffee a day have fewer heart problems than those who drink none. People who drink 5 or more cups don’t have any more problems than anyone else.

Two other studies, meta-analyses that collated data from 11 other research articles, found that drinking 2 to 6 cups a day results in a lower risk of stroke disease. One of those meta-studies included data from more than 500,000 participants.

A third study, another meta-study, found that people who drink moderate amounts of coffee have a lower risk of heart failure.

“A study looking at all cancers suggested that it might be associated with reduced overall cancer incidence and that the more you drank, the more protection was seen,” a New York Times article on all these studies states.

Good news for modern man

These studies are great news because caffeine is the most commonly consumed mood-altering substance in the entire world. Ninety percent of Americans regularly take caffeine in one form another. People are nuts about coffee and caffeine in general.

For years people were warned that coffee and caffeine consumption were bad for you. Coffee and other caffeine-containing substances were blamed for heart disease, cancer, stunted growth and psychological problems.

The New York Times, in reporting on these studies [2], wrote:

No one is suggesting you drink more coffee for your health. But drinking moderate amounts of coffee is linked to lower rates of pretty much all cardiovascular disease, contrary to what many might have heard about the dangers of coffee or caffeine. Even consumers on the very high end of the spectrum appear to have minimal, if any, ill effects.

But let’s not cherry-pick. There are outcomes outside of heart health that matter. Many believe that coffee might be associated with an increased risk of cancer. Certainly, individual studies have found that to be the case, and these are sometimes highlighted by the news media. But in the aggregate, most of these negative outcomes disappear.

A meta-analysis published in 2007 found that increasing coffee consumption by two cups a day was associated with a lower relative risk of liver cancer by more than 40 percent. Two more recent studies confirmed these findings. Results from meta-analyses looking at prostate cancer found that in the higher-quality studies, coffee consumption was not associated with negative outcomes.

The Times wrote that lower risk of breast cancer has been found, but that a higher risk of lung cancer was found among those who smoke and drink coffee.

The author of The Times’ article, Aaron E. Carroll, points out that these studies looked at black coffee. That is, they did not consider coffee with cream and sugar and some of the fancy concoctions that pack more calories than a McDonald’s lunch.

Black, of course

Carroll points out that some coffee drinks from popular cafes and restaurants have fat, cholesterol (two enemies of good heart health when consumed in excess) and hundreds or even more than 1,000 calories. This graphic from the University of Maryland [3] gives some popular drinks and their nutritional contents:

Carroll points out a few of the higher-calorie content coffee products and adds: “I won’t even mention the Cold Stone Creamery Gotta-Have-It-Sized Lotta Caramel Latte (1,790 calories, 90 grams of fat, 223 grams of carbs). Regular brewed coffee has 5 or fewer calories and no fat or carbohydrates.”

Coffee is not the only source of caffeine

If you want a good source of caffeine without all those bathroom runs, try Viter Energy Mints [4] with caffeine. The mints, which are reasonably priced, also contain vivifying B vitamins.

Each mint has 40 mg of caffeine, so adults can take up to 10 of the invigorating, breath-freshening lozenges per day. 

Viter Energy Mints are kosher, gluten-free, aspartame-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, and vegan. You can also buy the mints on Amazon.com [5]

Evidence piles up that coffee is good for us

But what about coffee’s other benefits? It can help combat the severity of migraine headache.

“Caffeine does seem to treat headaches [and migraines],” neurologist and Professor Mary Quiceno of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center told Everyday Health [6]. “There are lots of different reasons why caffeine is thought to help people.”

Caffeine can boost athletic stamina and speed so much that the International Olympic Committee once limited how much of it Olympic athletes could take. Caffeine was categorized as a performance-enhancing substance, as we pointed out in this blog posting [7].

And caffeine can enhance memory and concentration, keep you alert, alleviate fatigue and sleep deprivation, and, according to CaffeineInformer [8], it reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes.

That CaffeineInformer article has a long list of areas where caffeine benefits people’s health with links to the studies. Other areas where it may help is in boosting the production of semen, preventing erectile dysfunction, reducing suicide risk, reducing or preventing ringing in the ears, and reducing risk of kidney stones.

But even when all those studies and urban legends came out years ago about the supposed negative effects of caffeine, people kept right on drinking coffee, tea, soda, and eating chocolate – all of which have caffeine in various amounts. “I’ll stop drinking coffee when they take it from my cold, dead hands,” was the sentiment.

Check out the coffee and caffeine memes on Twitter or Facebook. People are nuts about coffee. This one is from @amoristicpillow:

But with all the love of coffee, there is a precaution, as illustrated by @twisteddoodles:

The caffeine cycle #coffee pic.twitter.com/HihJRdV1Ek

— TwistedDoodles (@twisteddoodles) March 22, 2016

If you take caffeine too late in the day it can keep you awake. And too much caffeine can cause headaches, make one feel lightheaded, cause anxiety attacks and tremulousness.

Otherwise, enjoy!

Sources: