Is Drinking Coffee Really That Bad For You
Written by: Maria Brett
For years coffee has suffered a pretty negative reputation. But is it really all that bad for you?
Positives
Contrary to what many health nuts would have you believe, coffee does have plenty of benefits.
Diabetes
Diabete Studies have shown that coffee can help reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. In fact, people who drink six cups of coffee a day are at least 30% less likely to develop the condition. One study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggested, each cup of coffee in a day reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 7%.
Antioxidants
Coffee is packed full of antioxidants – man-made or naturally occurring chemicals that can prevent or slow down cell damage. Antioxidants have been linked to health benefits including: a reduced risk of heart disease and some types of cancer. To get the most out of these antioxidants it’s best to drink your coffee black.
Lose weight
Obviously if you love your coffee with cream and flavoured syrups, your figure isn’t exactly going to thank you for it. But in general, coffee may help you burn fat. Research has suggested that caffeine can help boost the metabolism, meaning you can burn calories quicker.
Depression
An observational study of over 50,000 women published in the medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine found, those drinking two or more cups of coffee a day were less likely to suffer from depression than others drinking only one cup or less each day. Researchers found that only caffeinated coffee had an effect. However, the NHS warns that further research is needed into the relationship between coffee and depression.
Negatives
Despite the benefits coffee can provide, it’s not all-good news, there are some negative aspects to the drink.
Miscarriage
Pregnant women are advised to limit their caffeine intake, including coffee, it has been linked to an increased chance of miscarriage. There’s no need to cut out coffee completely though. The NHS advises expectant mothers to limit their caffeine intake to 200mg a day – that’s the equivalent of two mugs of instant coffee.
Sugar
A cup of black coffee contains virtually no calories, but when we start adding milk, cream, sugar and flavoured syrups the calories soon mount up. Moreover, one study by consumer watchdog Which? found that a morning coffee from a takeaway outlet could contain up to 400 calories! If you add two sugars to your coffee, drinking up to six cups a day – that’s 12 spoonfuls of sugar being consumed just in your daily coffee habit.
Dependency
Caffeine is a stimulant and as such, our bodies can become dependant on it. Withdrawal can lead to headaches, mood swings, irritability, fatigue and even nausea. However, these symptoms should only last for a couple of days at most.
Insomnia
Caffeine passes through the body relatively quickly, taking around five hours to be processed. This means that morning cuppers shouldn’t be a problem, as the caffeine will have disappeared by bedtime. However, drinking coffee later in the day may affect your sleeping patterns, making it more difficult for you to fall and stay asleep.
So, it turns out that coffee isn’t the drink of the devil. It does have some qualities that can actually be beneficial to our health. But, like everything, moderation is the key to making sure you get the advantages without it becoming a potentially detrimental habit.
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