If most people have a strong view on where to get the best cup of coffee, there must be almost as many opinions on the positive and negative effects of one of the world’s most popular drinks.
According to theBritish Coffee Association , Britons get through more than 98 million cups of coffee every day, but while some people are attracted by the flavour, others are after a caffeine kick.
This chemical – also found in tea and many fizzy drinks such as cola – can make people feel more alert by blocking sleep-inducing chemicals in the brain and increasing adrenaline production.
However, while these effects can be useful when caffeine is consumed in moderation, too much can leave the drinker feeling “wired”, or shaky and anxious.
Here are some of the pros associated with drinking coffee:
Cutting risk of early death
A new study has found that a moderate coffee habit could cut the risk of an early death by up to 31%.Analysis of 171,000 people in the UK, discovered that those drinking a “moderate” amount, defined as one-and-a-half to three-and-a-half cups of coffee a day, had a lower risk of dying prematurely, irrespective of whether their coffee was sweetened with sugar.
“While we can’t conclude definitively that drinking coffee lowers your risk of dying, what we can probably say is that drinking coffee with a little bit of sugar probably doesn’t cause much harm,”
Cutting risk of disease
Moderate coffee drinking was included as part of a healthy diet and when researchers added controls for lifestyle factors,
American College of Cardiology's 71st Annual Scientific Session found that drinking two to three cups of coffee each day lowers your risk of heart disease and dangerous heart rhythms.
Other diseases where coffee has shown to have some of the strongest protective effects include Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and liver conditions such as cirrhosis, liver cancer and chronic liver disease.
Lower rate of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and dementia
There hasn't been quite as much work done in this area, but studies found that coffee drinkers had a 16 percent reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia. Meanwhile, a 2014 review found that coffee drinkers had lower rates of Parkinson's disease, with people who drank three cups per day having the lowest rates.
Lower rates of some cancers
A 2011 review of 59 studies found that daily coffee drinkers had a lower chance of developing cancer overall, with each cup (up to six per day) correlating with a 3 percent reduced risk. Cancer-specific reviews have found reductions in the risk of prostate cancer,liver cancer and colorectal cancer in particular.
Improved athletic performance — and perhaps memory
It's surprising, but experiments have consistently shown that caffeine ingestion can lead to a modest but measurable short-term improvement in athletic performance, in activities as varied as sprinting, cycling, weightlifting and long-distance running.Meanwhile, other research has suggested that drinking a few cups of coffee after studying helped people remember the material the following day — though that work was preliminary, and more needs to be done to confirm the effect.
So whether you are sipping on one while you’re getting ready in the morning, stuck in traffic or rushing to a meeting at work or just managed to have a quiet moment remember your favourite cuppa has plenty of benefits for your health.
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