Is coffee healthy? New study confirms if coffee is good or bad for you!

The National Coffee Association reports that more than three-fourths of Americans are coffee drinkers.  This makes coffee America’s top daily beverage, with water coming in second.  The 2015 National Coffee Drinking Trends (NCDT) found that 59 percent of Americans drink coffee daily, and 71 percent report to drinking coffee at least once per week. (1)

The coffee debate continues: is it good or bad for your health?

With coffee being a favored beverage worldwide, there has been much debate over whether coffee is good or bad for us.  Depending on who you ask, the answers for each side of the argument are convincing.   You may hear some say coffee is high in antioxidants and can reduce the risk of disease; while others argue that coffee is a stimulant and could cause sleep difficulties.  (2)

An 8 oz cup of coffee contains the below nutrients :

• Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): 11% of the RDA.
• Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid): 6% of the RDA.
• Vitamin B1 (Thiamin): 2% of the RDA.
• Vitamin B3 (Niacin): 2% of the RDA.
• Folate: 1% of the RDA.
• Manganese: 3% of the RDA.
• Potassium: 3% of the RDA.
• Magnesium: 2% of the RDA.
• Phosphorus: 1% of the RDA (2)

A person eating the typical western diet may get more antioxidants from their daily coffee than they get from fruits and vegetables!  It’s important to keep in mind that coffee is a stimulant and this means that it blocks the function of the brain hormone, Adenosine.  By blocking adenosine, caffeine increases brain activity and the release of norepinephrine and dopamine.  This can lead to improved mood, reaction time and cognitive functioning.  But remember, the trade off is that you are changing your biological brain chemistry. (2)

New study reports that coffee may be neither good nor bad for your health!

The debates go back and forth in such a convincing way that health conscious coffee drinkers are left wondering what to do.  A new study from University of Copenhagen is the first that has used genes to investigate the impact of coffee on the body.  The researchers based their study on genes, and how genes play a role in how much coffee we drink. (3)

The research team uniquely designed a study that examines the number of genes that affect our desire for coffee.  If you have a coffee gene, you may drink more coffee than those who do not have the gene.  This study allowed researchers to examine whether higher coffee consumption increases or decreases risk of developing diseases related to lifestyle.(3)

The end result reports that coffee neither increases nor decreases the risk of lifestyle diseases.  Clinical professor, Boerge Nordestgaard, reports, “We can now see that the coffee genes are surprisingly not associated with a risk of developing type 2 diabetes or obesity. This suggests that drinking coffee neither causes nor protects against these lifestyle diseases.”(3)

As with most foods and drinks, it may be best to consume coffee within reason and not depend on coffee for daily functioning.  And according to recent science, it appears that a “cup of Joe” in the morning may not have long-term health impacts!