5 Reasons You Should Drink Coffee

   I found this article on yahoo last week but I just didn’t get the chance to blog about it. before I dive into school work for the evening, I thought I would share it with you. It gives 5 reasons why coffee can actually be good for you. Now I’m not, and I’m sure the article isn’t, suggesting that you drink 10 cups of coffee everyday, but 1-3 cups per day may not be all that bad for you.

Reason # 1: It protects your heart
People who drink 1-3 cups/day have lower rates of stroke than non-coffee drinkers. This is because of all the antioxidants coffee has which can suppress the damaging effect of inflammation on arteries. In the short term, it raises your blood pressure and heart rate,  but over the long term it can lower blood pressure as the antioxidants in coffee activate nitric oxide, which widens blood vessels.

Reason #2: It diverts diabetes
The antioxidants do something else for your body: they boost your cells’ sensitivity to insulin which helps your body regulate blood sugar. According to some studies, people who drink 4 or more cups of coffee each day may have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. There are other studies that showed that caffeine can blunt the insulin-sensitivity boost, so you may want to try mixing in decaf now and then if you drink several cups a day.

Reason #3: Your liver loves it
The research for this reason is limited, but it looks like the more coffee people drink, the lower their incidence of cirrhosis and other liver diseases.

Reason #4: It boosts your brain power
Drinking 1-5 cups a day may help reduce the risk of dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson’s disease. The antioxidants may ward off brain cell damage and help the neurotransmitters involved in cognitive function to work better.

Reason 5: It helps your headaches
Studies show that 200 milligrams of caffeine, about the amount in 16 ounces of brewed coffee. How caffeine relieves headaches isn’t clear, but scientists know that it boosts the activity of brain cells, which causes surrounding blood vessels to constrict. One theory is that the constriction helps relieve the pressure that causes the pain

The article also mentions the pitfalls to coffee: some people are super-sensitive to caffeine and get jittery, it can disturb sleep, and unfiltered coffee can raise LDL cholesterol.

So to all the coffee drinkers, keep drinking coffee and don’t feel guilty about it!

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