Coffee Drinking: Learn its 5 benefits!

14.07.2019 LISTEN

We always here people talking about coffee keeping us up at night, too much coffee not been good for us and all sorts of 2nd hand stories.

But, is coffee really good for us? Should be drining more coffee?

The nutrients in Coffee

Coffee as a drink, if and only if it is properly roasted and brewed (we at BeanMasters make sure that our organic Ghanaian coffee is properly and freshly roasted) has certain vital and important nutrients, including:

Riboflavin,
Pantothenic Acid,
Manganese,
Potassium,
Magnesium and
Niacin

So, coffee does go 'a long way' in providing many health benefits to an individual if taken on regular basis.

So, what is Coffee ...made of?

According to Self-nutrition data website, one-eight ounce cup of regular coffee contains about:

2.4 calories
0 grams fat
0 grams sugar
0.3 grams protein
0.2 milligrams vitamin B2 riboflavin (11 percent DV)
0.6 milligrams pantothenic acid (6 percent DV)

116 milligrams potassium (3 percent DV)

7.1 milligrams magnesium (2 percent DV)

0.5 milligrams niacin (2 percent DV)

(DV stands for recommented Daily Value)

WHY DO YOU DRINK COFFEE?

To help tackle the question of what benefit one derives from drinking coffee, we randomly asked some coffee drink lovers this question of why they drink coffe; their most common answers are:

All these answers send a hint of some level of satisfaction and implied benefits of drinking coffee.

Definition of the word “Benefit”

The word Benefit according to the Cambridge English Dictionary is a helpful or good effect, or something intended to help, to highlight further, Collins English Dictionary expands the definition of benefit by stating that “the benefit of something is the help that you get from it or the advantage that results from it”.

The 5 Benefits of coffee

Due to the popularity of the coffee drink there have been many researches and test to look into the benefits of regularly drinking coffee, below is a list discussing five well known benefits of drinking coffee

Diabetes (disease in which the body doesn’t produce enough or any insulin or doesn’t properly use the insulin that is produced, or exhibits a combination of both) is a great problem and many around the world suffer from various types of diabetes (Type-1, Type-2 and gestational)

Type-2 diabetes is regarded as a big health problem, currently afflicting about 300 million people worldwide. It is characterized by high blood sugars in the context of insulin resistance or an inability to secrete insulin.

Also Type-2 or the 'sugar disease' as we call it in Ghana, is so common all over Africa - possibly a lot more than in any other part of the World.

According to studies done by Healthline.com, for some reason, coffee drinkers have a significantly reduced risk of developing Type-2 diabetes.

The studies show that people who drink the most coffee have a 23-50% lower risk of getting this disease, one study showing a reduction as high as 67%. According to a massive review that looked at data from 18 studies with a total of 457,922 individuals, each daily cup of coffee was associated with a 7% reduced risk of developing Type-2 diabetes.

Heart disease refers to issues and deformities in the heart, According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia.

Korean researchers found that people who consumed 3 to 5 cups of coffee a day were less likely to show the beginning signs of heart disease. A more recent study conducted in Brazil found that those that consume at least 3 cups of coffee a day tend to develop less calcification in their coronary arteries.

Also, it is said that unfiltered coffee is a significant source of cafestol and kahweol antioxidants, which are diterpene compounds that have been implicated in the cholesterol-balancing effects of coffee which reduce the risk of death by heart disease.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disease of the nervous system marked by tremor, muscular rigidity, and slow, imprecise movement.

Researchers in the U.S. carried out a study that assessed the link between coffee consumption and Parkinson's disease risk. The authors of the study concluded that "higher coffee and caffeine intake is associated with a significantly lower incidence of Parkinson's disease".

In addition, according to a study conducted at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC) that was published in the journal Neurology, caffeine in coffee may help control movement in people suffering from Parkinson's.

Cancer, is an abnormal growth of cells. Various studies shows there are more than 100 types of cancer, including but not limited to breast cancer, skin cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and lymphoma.

Hundreds of biologically active compounds including caffeine, flavonoids, lignans, and other polyphenols found in roasted coffee are said to work together to reduce the risk of cancer.

Further studies in this area has shown that coffee may decrease the risk of developing prostate cancer in men by 20 %, and endometrial cancer in women by 25 %. People in the test group drank four cups of coffee a day. Caffeine may also prevent developing of basal cell carcinoma, the most common type of skin cancer.

Coffee as we know contain some level of caffeine, studies show that when a person ingests caffeine, the caffeine molecule travels in the blood, up to the brain and turns on a receptor that is to be filled with adenosine (a brain chemical) to energy is boosted.

This benefit seems more obvious can many people can easily identify with it. It is the reason most people turn to their morning cup of coffee. There is no doubt coffee can give you that extra boost you need or wake up call, especially when you have had insufficient sleep.

This is due to the caffeine which acts as a stimulant that helps you feel more alert and focused. It also gives you a boost in energy and helps you keep going when you are low on energy. It is also said that, you can even boost your productivity if you drink coffee strategically,

How to get the maximum benefit from coffee

Various practices have helped established proper ways of handling coffee to get the maximum benefit from it, below is a few listed ways;

In Conclusion: The Bottom line on the benefits of Boffee

Coffee beans contains caffeine and are loaded with antioxidants. Almost every scientific study or reference on the subject (Benefits of Coffee) suggests that coffee’s active ingredients, especially chlorogenic acid, might actually contribute to the prevention of some chronic diseases.

There are mixed opinions on the benefits of regular coffee drinking habits, but many experts believe that moderate consumption of coffee drink, has more advantages than demerits against it.

From the brief analysis stated above, it is important for you to weigh the merits and demerits yourself, keeping in mind how you personally react to drinking coffee to properly appreciate its benefits.

Thank you,

Benedicta.

About the Author:

Benedicta Tamakloe -a Coffeepreneur, is the Founder of Bean Masters ( https://BeanMasters.Coffee ), a Ghanaian organic fresh roasted coffee producer.

She welcomes all remarks/questions/ feedback via email at [email protected]