Coffee isn’t just for your morning boost anymore. Coffee contains antioxidants and nutrients that can improve your health. Latinos love coffee, whether it be café con leche, café de olla, black coffee, or coffee with cinnamon–we love it! Now there’s even more reasons to love coffee, check out these 5 facts about coffee you probably didn’t know!
1. Improves Energy Levels and Intellect: Coffee increases energy levels because of the amounts of caffeine it has. One cup of coffee can have almost 100 mg of caffeine. It is actually the most commonly consumed psychoactive substance in the world. After you drink coffee, the caffeine is absorbed into the bloodstream, which is when the the boost starts to kick in. Coffee improves various aspects of brain function, such as memory, mood, vigilance, energy levels, reaction times and general cognitive function.
2. Helps Prevent Type 2 Diabetes: This is a gigantic health problem, especially Latinos, currently afflicting about 300 million people worldwide. It is characterized by elevated blood sugars in the context of insulin resistance or an inability to secrete insulin. 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 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.
3. Fat Burner: If you love coffee, drinking it black is your best option for weight loss. Black coffee is calorie-free and a diuretic — it’s the cream and sugar that can pack on the pounds. A single cup of coffee with 2 teaspoons of sugar and an ounce of half-and-half has just 69 calories. If you were to switch from coffee with sugar and cream to black coffee every day for a year, you’d save more than 75,000 calories — the equivalent of almost 22 pounds of fat. Coffee boosts your metabolism and helps you burn fat. Caffeine is often found in diet supplements and it’s one of the very few natural substances that have actually been proven to aid fat burning. However, it is possible that these effects will diminish in long-term coffee drinkers.
4. Coffee Can Help With Parkinson’s Disease: Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, right after Alzheimer’s. Studies show that people who use caffeine are less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, and caffeine can help with movement for people who already have the disease. It is caused by death of dopamine-generating neurons in the brain. Same as with Alzheimer’s, there is no known cure, which makes it that much more important to focus on prevention.
5. Helps Prevent Liver Disease:
A new study in the journal: Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research found that Hispanics develop alcoholic liver disease at a younger age than African-Americans or Caucasians. The study found that Hispanics are diagnosed with alcoholic liver disease at a younger age, between four and ten years younger than other ethnic groups. Drinking coffee might reduce the amount of damage that your liver has received due to excessive drinking. There is no cure to cirrhosis and it’s usually fatal. Cirrhosis kills more than one million people every year worldwide. It can be caused by hepatitis infections, excessive alcohol consumption, immune disorders, and fatty liver disease, which is tied to obesity and diabetes.
Coffee is not only delicious but healthy. Be proud to hold a cup of joe in the mornings because you’re doing yourself a favor. Everything in moderation of course…enjoy!