From Black to Decaf: 8 Incredible Health Benefits of Coffee

From increased energy, to heart health, and even cancer prevention, the health benefits of coffee are as exciting as they are numerous. In order to maximize these benefits of your favorite morning brew, however, it’s essential to choose a high quality coffee rich in antioxidants and other bioactive compounds like theobromine and cafestol.

We’ve lined up 8 incredible benefits of coffee to share with you. Enjoy!

In this article you will learn:

• 8 Health Benefits of Coffee
• Decaf vs. Caffeinated Coffee
• Is Black Coffee Better? Does Creamer Kill the Health Benefits of Coffee?

1. Increased Energy & Focus

Looking for an energy and focus boost? Coffee can help! Though caffeine is largely touted as the energy superstar of coffee, other bioactive substances such as theobromine, theophylline, and antioxidant-rich chlorogenic acids are major contributors to coffee’s brain-boosting effects.

2. Coffee & Weight Loss

The opinions and research on coffee’s weight loss benefits are mixed. Coffee can signal your body to burn more fat, which can increase your resting metabolic rate. That means coffee can boost how much you burn while sitting on your bum or standing still at your desk all day by a small percentage.

Depending on how you take your coffee, however, most creamers, syrups, and flavors come loaded with sugar, artificial flavors, and hidden calories, which can counteract the potential weight loss benefits of coffee alone. And, unfortunately for the regular coffee drinkers, over time the body builds up a tolerance to the metabolic effects of coffee, resulting in fewer benefits.

Bottom line: coffee alone might not be a weight loss miracle, but alongside healthy habits like eating whole foods, supporting with supplements, and getting exercise, it’s one small action you can take to boost your weight loss.

3. Coffee & Heart Health

Because too much coffee can make your heart race or increase anxiety, some people mistakenly think that it isn’t good for your heart. Truth is, one of the longest-running and largest studies investigating the relationship between coffee and heart health revealed that drinking up to six cups per day actually lowers your risk of heart failure, stroke, and coronary heart disease. 

The latest research reveals that the caffeine in coffee activates a particular enzyme, p27, starting a sequence of cellular reactions that creates new heart cells, prevents cell death, and lays the groundwork for new structural cells. You can drink to that! In fact, that particular study recommends drinking four 8 oz cups a day!

4. Coffee & Cancer Prevention

Drinking coffee may decrease your risk for some types of cancer including liver, prostate, endometrial, liver, and non-melanoma skin cancers, along with melanoma and leukemia, and female head and neck cancer. Because there are so many chemical compounds in coffee, the exact mechanisms of cancer prevention are still unknown, so it could either be a causal relationship or simply a correlation. We do know that drinking your daily joe is not harmful though and that continuing to imbibe does pack on the antioxidants. 

5. Liver Health

Drinking coffee can have liver benefits as well. It helps to reduce your risk of liver cancer and the advancement of some types of chronic liver disease, as well as help to prevent the hepatitis C virus from replicating. 

Although scientists have long been unsure of what exactly in coffee benefits the liver, a 2017 review of research provided some clarity: it’s a compound in coffee, not caffeine. Scientists suspect the compounds kahweol and cafestol play a role in triggering liver detoxification and interrupt the growth process of cells that develop into fibrosis.

6. Reduced Risk of Alzheimer’s, Dementia, and Cognitive Decline

The caffeine in coffee has an immediate effect on your central nervous system, which actually benefits you! Caffeine blocks receptors for adenosine, a neurotransmitter which increases excitability in the brain and influences the build-up of enzymes known to start Alzheimer’s disease.

Consuming between three and five cups of coffee a day during your midlife decreases your likelihood of Alzheimer’s, Dementia, or Cognitive Decline by 65% later in life. Start drinking now and you’ll gain long-term cognitive benefits.

7. Protects Against Type 2 Diabetes

Cafestol, a bioactive compound in coffee, increases insulin secretion, reduces fasting glucose levels, and improves insulin sensitivity, which may contribute to a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

8. Anti-aging

The same antioxidants that help boost heart health, lower the risk of chronic disease like diabetes, and maintain liver function, also have powerful anti-aging properties. Coffee drinkers live longer because coffee helps prevent age-related diseases.

Caffeine or Decaf?

When it comes to health benefits, decaffeinated coffee is less beneficial than its caffeinated counterpart.

Despite the “decaf” label, there is no such thing as 100% caffeine-free coffee because caffeine occurs naturally in coffee. Even with a chemical-free, healthy decaffeination method like the Swiss Water Process or carbon dioxide removal, decaf coffee still contains approximately 3% of its caffeine content.

Though caffeine is specifically linked to a number of the health benefits of coffee, coffee contains important antioxidants and bioactive compounds that still make decaf pack a healthy punch. In fact, for those people that experience uncomfortably high heart rates or interrupted sleep cycles due to caffeine consumption, decaf is the healthier choice!

If you do prefer a decaffeinated brew, a light roast will give you the most health benefits. The heat of the roasting process can destroy some of the beneficial antioxidants in coffee so a lighter roast, which has been roasted for a shorter period of time, will contain more antioxidants and health-promoting compounds than a darker roast.

Caffeinated or not, it’s always important to choose the highest quality coffee beans because roasting, processing, and storage have a major impact on a coffee’s health benefits. For a coffee that's specifically sourced and roasted to maximize health benefits, check out our new Clean Coffee. Each batch is tested to ensure the absence of mold and mycotoxins and contains 200% more antioxidants than your average cup of coffee. It’s a brew that tastes as amazing as it will make you feel!

Is Black Coffee Better? Does Creamer Kill the Health Benefits of Black Coffee?

It depends on the creamer you choose! Adding creamer does not literally remove or destroy the bioactive substances that make coffee healthy. But, adding artificial, sugar-laden extras to your coffee will likely cancel out coffee’s health benefits.

If you’re not a black coffee drinker or if you’re looking for a healthy coffee creamer to enhance the health benefits of your morning coffee, try adding a high-quality creamer like our Creamy MCT Oil. Rich with energy-boosting MCTs and available in delectable flavors like Vanilla and Caramel, our Creamy MCT Oil will add a luxuriously creamy texture to your coffee while fueling you with quality fats for sustained energy and focus! 

What benefits do you notice from coffee? Leave a comment below and let us know!

UP NEXT: Is Coffee Bad for You? Why Mold and Mycotoxins Might be to Blame

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