IS COFFEE HEALTHY?

Today will go down in history: I drank my first cup of straight black coffee….ever! And to be completely honest, it wasn’t bad at all. Normally I drink tea every morning, with the occasional Starbucks latte or hot chocolate when I want to treat myself. However, today I was really struggling to get moving. I walked into the office and moments later my boss told me I had an impromptu meeting with my CEO at 9am, where I was needed to give a demo of one of our websites to new clients over a conference call. I just sat and stared at my boss, as I was so tired I couldn’t even process what he was saying. I had 15 minutes to perk up….and quite frankly at the time, I could hardly keep my head up. Not an ideal way to start the New Year.

Thus, I was driven to take to drastic measures and drink coffee. However, since my office only has the fake coffee creamers and I was not about to break my New Year’s Resolution on day 2 (eating all-natural foods), I pretty much was forced to drink it black. So, after rummaging through all the different k-cup flavors in the cabinets, I finally choose a light roast (gingerbread flavor) and drank it black.

I anticipated gagging it down since I normally detest the taste of coffee, but I guess I was being a bit dramatic. It wasn’t bad at all. It’s definitely the fake creamer that makes it taste chalky and leave the terrible aftertaste because I didn’t experience either of those.  AND, it left me with tons of energy after drinking an entire cup of coffee (I never actually finish a cup when I do attempt).

For 5 calories, I suppose I could certainly get used to this (at least for a winter phase . Although, I won’t go any stronger than a light roast….yet.

So now that I am going to be an avid coffee drinker , I had to briefly Google coffee health benefits to know what I am getting in to. Turns out, coffee really can be good for you (I always just assumed coffee-addicts say it’s good for you, to make themselves feel better .

After researching the world-wide-web, I have found that:

1. Less Depression: A study found that women who consumed two to three cups of coffee per day had a 15 percent lower risk of depression than non-coffee drinkers. And those who drank four or more cups per day have a 20 percent lower risk.

2. Improved Mental Health: Those who drink three to five cups of coffee per day have approximately a 65% decreased chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, according to this study.

3. Stronger Heart: Those consuming one to two cups of coffee a day reduced the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by as much as 38%, according to this study.

4. Reduction of Type-2 diabetes: Between 1986 and 1998, a study found that long-term coffee drinkers had a significantly reduced risk of developing type-2 diabetes and statistics indicated the risk decreased the more they drank.

5. Assists with Weight-Loss: After a 22 week study of 16 overweight adults, it was discovered that participants given green coffee bean extract had undergone significant weight loss with 37.5% of them transitioning from being at a pre-obesity weight to a normal weight range.

6. Reduces painful computer work: A study of 48 people performing office work, found that those who consumed coffee only declared a pain-intensity level of 41, whereas participants who didn’t drink any coffee reported having a score of 55.

I think it’s time for a coffee break