The welcoming aroma of your morning coffee brewing can be irresistible—enough to draw you out of a warm bed on a cold day. But did you know that your morning kick-off also has benefits that go beyond giving you a little pep in your step? Drinking coffee in the morning can provide you with energy, focus, and a big dose of nutrients to support your physical health and cognition. Here are eight ways that drinking coffee every day benefits you.
1. Boost Your Energy
Devoted coffee drinkers know that a perfectly prepared cup of coffee in the morning can set the tone for your whole day. If you’re already a morning coffee drinker, you also know that your first cup of the day gives you an energy boost. Caffeine, the naturally-occurring stimulant in coffee, increases energy levels and decreases fatigue by altering levels of certain neurotransmitters in the brain. This heightened sense of alertness has many benefits, including increased vigilance, improved cognitive functions, and quicker reaction times. All great news for your morning commute.
2. Improve Your Workout
If you love your pre-workout cup of morning coffee, it’s giving you a little love in return. Drinking coffee before working out or engaging in athletic activities can improve your endurance by increasing fatty acids in your blood, increase your gait speed, strengthen muscle contractions, and lower your perception of exertion. And research shows that caffeine in moderate amounts (less than 5 cups per day) is not dehydrating to casual exercisers or athletes.
3. Increase Your Metabolic Rate
Respected scientific studies have been published with the findings that a cup of coffee can increase your metabolic rate by 3-11%. Caffeine is one of the very few natural aids proven to help burn fat and promote weight management. If you drink one to two cups of coffee per day, you are 17% more likely to meet your daily recommended activity levels versus those who drink less than one cup per day.
4. Treat your Body To A Big Dose Of Nutrients
Coffee is a significant source of antioxidants. Antioxidants fight inflammation that can lead to chronic conditions. One cup of coffee also provides you with:
- Magnesium and Niacin (B3)
- Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
- Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5)
- Manganese and Potassium
If you drink more than one cup (8oz) per day, your body will gain even more of these beneficial nutrients.
5. Love Your Heart
While there was some debate in the past about the heart-healthiness of coffee, a breakthrough study in Denmark followed 37,000 people over 13 years and found that moderate coffee drinkers (2-4 cups daily) had a 20% lower risk of heart disease than light, heavy, or non-coffee drinkers. Moderation is the key, and of course you should always follow your doctor’s advice on the amount of coffee that is best and safe for you!
6. Lower Your Type 2 Diabetes Risk
Some research suggests that drinking coffee can lower your risk of Type 2 Diabetes. Decaf coffee is equally effective at lowering Type 2 Diabetes risk, if not more so, than regularly caffeinated coffee. Coffee may assist the body in using insulin and protecting insulin-producing cells, prevent tissue damage, and has high levels of antioxidants—all of which can potentially lower the risk of diabetes.
7. Support Liver Functions
Drinking coffee supports liver health and helps protect against liver disease. Enjoying two cups of coffee per day was linked to reduced rates of liver scarring and liver cancer (in people with liver disease). Enjoying one cup of coffee per day was tied to a 15% lower risk of death from chronic liver disease, while drinking four cups per day was linked to a 71% lower risk.
8. Improve Cognition
One cup of coffee was found to cause a surge in brain activity during memory tasks in an Austrian research study. The reaction times and memory skills of research volunteers were improved over the volunteers who received a placebo. While the effects may vary from person to person, a cup of coffee can give you the boost you need when it’s time to dig in on tasks requiring concentration and memory-related skills.
9. Reduce Your Risk Of Alzheimer’s Dementia
Coffee drinking at midlife is associated with a decreased risk of dementia/AD later in life. An extensive study on the correlation between coffee drinking and Alzheimer’s Dementia (AD) found, after a 21-year follow up, that there was a link between mid-life coffee drinking and the lowered risk of AD. The lowest risk (65%) was found in people who drank 3-5 cups of coffee per day.