Coffee - Coffee and Health
Have you ever wondered how healthy your coffee-drinking habit is? The answer may lie in how much you drink.
In the last twenty-five years there’s been a major increase in research about the effects of coffee on the body. Most likely, this research boom has been caused by a rapid growth in the amount of coffee being consumed throughout the world. Amazingly, over 400 million cups are consumed around the world daily.
There’s been a decades-old debate about whether coffee is hazardous or beneficial. The old concerns mostly revolved around the fact that coffee is a stimulant, so it can potentially cause slightly increased heart rate and irregular heartbeats. New research shows that, actually, those effects are short-lived and the benefits could far outweigh the risks.
For instance, some research shows that if you drink more than four cups a day it could reduce your risk of colon cancer. That could be considered good or bad though. Drinking that much coffee may reduce your cancer risk, but it may also create other issues. Luckily there are other health benefits to coffee, which don’t require you to drink quite as much of it.
For example, the antioxidants in coffee can reduce the risks of heart disease. While that’s a good thing, scientists point out that the same effect can be gained from eating fruits and vegetables and the fruits and vegetables also provide key vitamins and minerals, which coffee does not.
Studies in China and America, as well as Scandinavia, show that drinking coffee can possibly reduce the effects of such things as Parkinson’s disease, type-2 diabetes, and asthma. Similar studies also indicate that coffee can reduce the risks of kidney stones, gall stones and other digestive problems. Drinking coffee in moderation can even assist fertility a bit because studies have shown that sperm swim longer and faster when exposed to small doses of coffee.
Like many other things, coffee is good in moderation. However, there are usually risks involved in having too much of a good thing. Drinking too much coffee does have some possible side-effects.
While drinking a little coffee can possibly help your fertility, drinking too much coffee can actually cause fertility problems. Drinking too much coffee can also increase your risk of developing coronary heart disease because coffee adds homocysteine too your bloodstream. Homocysteine, recent studies show, increases the possibility of coronary heart disease.
Similar studies have also shown that coffee increases the bad cholesterol in your bloodstream (LDL-cholesterol). Coffee contains cafestol, which raises cholesterol levels. The good news is that cafestol is mainly a concern for those who drink coffee that has been made by the European method of boiling coffee beans in water. Most Americans prefer to percolate or filter their coffee. If you are among those, you do not need to be as concerned, because those methods help to remove cafestol.
If you happen to be a female coffee drinker, you should definitely be aware that drinking coffee can cause you to lose more calcium. Losing calcium can cause you to have less dense bones. Drinking too much coffee can also increase your risk of developing urinary incontinence problems.
If you feel that you are drinking too much coffee, you may want to substitute herbal tea for a cup or two a day. Green Tea is said to have beneficial side effects while still having some caffeine. If you want less caffeine, try drinking decaffeinated coffee or herbal tea.
The bottom line is that it’s up to you to decide if the benefits of coffee outweigh the risks to you personally. There are many factors that can come into play when you make that decision. So, as you drink your morning latte, ask yourself how it makes you feel.
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