"The best effects in terms of longevity and diabetes and Alzheimer's protection are actually the people who drink 5 cups or more a day. Isn't that crazy?"
- Coffee is the greatest source of antioxidants in the American diet.3,4 And the good news is that sound scientific studies have found that the common fears about excess coffee consumption are invalid, and higher intake means bigger benefits.
- An impressive number of studies have shown a strong association between higher consumption of coffee and a significantly reduced risk of most chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and others.
- With over 1,000 phytochemicals, coffee's unparalleled antioxidant punch no doubt plays a role in its protection against disease. But a multitude of direct biological actions on the body are suspected, such as an improvement in intracellular signaling,95,96 which may help prevent cancer, diabetes and more.
- Drinking just one cup of coffee a day - caffeinated or decaffeinated - can decrease the risk of developing diabetes by 13%.24 But at 12 cups a day, the risk of getting diabetes is slashed by 67%.21
- Far from being a risky habit, coffee has now been shown to provide powerful protection against an epidemic of diabetes and a rising tide of other age-related diseases. It's an all-natural and inexpensive elixir - to go!
Every morning, many of us sip our coffee with no real thought given to the beans behind the brew. But coffee beans are extra-ordinarily complex fruits containing over 1,0001,2 compounds - only a handful of which have ever been individually investigated by scientists. Not only is coffee packed with antioxidants,3 but it is the greatest source of antioxidants in the American diet.3,4
The average American coffee drinker consumes about 3.1 cups of coffee a day,5 but extensive research has found that higher volumes - as much as 4 to 12 cups daily - can help prevent most major killers, including cardiovascular disease,6-8 cancer,9-11 diabetes,12-14 liver disease,15-17 and Alzheimer's disease.18-20
For instance, in case-controlled human studies, compared to coffee abstainers, those who drank the most coffee cut their risks of breast cancer by 57% and diabetes by 67%.10,21
In this article, you will learn about recent research into the benefits of coffee consumption, what's missing from most commercial coffee beans, and what people should do who are overly sensitive to coffee beverages.
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Those who drink the most coffee have a substantially reduced risk of developing diabetes, cancer, liver disease, cognitive decline, and DNA damage. But the health benefits of coffee's complex phytochemistry don't end there:
- Decaffeinated and caffeinated coffee lowered the risk of kidney stones in women by 9 and 10%, respectively.107
- Caffeinated coffee reduced the incidence of gallstones and gall bladder disease in both men and women.108,109
- Scientists found that coffee boosted regular weight loss by 8 pounds and promoted body fat metabolism.91,110,111
- Sometimes-inconsistent findings have generally linked coffee drinking with reduced all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality.6,112-115
- For athletes, caffeine reduced muscle pain, increased energy (ergogenic aid), and enhanced endurance.116-119
- One study found caffeine, taken 2 hours before exercise, prevented exercise-induced asthma.120
- Confirming earlier research, a 2011 study on over 50,000 women found that 4 cups of coffee daily lowered the risk of depression by 20%, compared to coffee abstainers.121
- Antibacterials in coffee were found to inhibit plaque formation and prevent dental decay.122
- Whether caffeinated or decaffeinated, coffee consumption prevents constipation 123,124 and - despite the myth that coffee dehydrates the body - contributes to the body's fluid requirements.125-127
- Caffeine is believed to boost by 40% the effectiveness of pain relievers against headaches. Caffeine also helps the body absorb headache medications more quickly.128
- A large, as-yet-unpublished study presented October 24, 2011, found that men and women with the highest coffee consumption have a 13% and 18% lower risk, respectively, for basal cell carcinoma (a type of skin cancer).129