7 Reasons You Should Keep Having Coffee in the Morning

Waking up is hard and sometimes you need a little help. Over half of Americans need coffee in the morning for that caffeine pick-up.

But besides the obvious energizing effect from coffee, there are other benefits of starting the day with a cup. So before you decide to drop it and try another drink, check out these reasons for sticking with Joe.

Benefits of Coffee in the Morning

It tastes great, smells fantastic, and there are dozens of varieties of beans and preparations. Aside from that, there are also health benefits to drinking a cup-a-day.

Just remember that too much caffeine can affect your body negatively. Experts suggest that 6 cups a day can lead to heart issues. So enjoy coffee, like so much else, in moderation.

  1. Coffee Can Help Your Liver

Thousands of Americans die each year from liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. The suspected culprits are the increased consumption of calories and alcohol. Coffee has been seen to help reduce the risk of these liver problems in clinical studies.

While the actual mechanics of how coffee can help are not quite clear to researchers, there are solid theories. The primary idea is that the paraxanthine in caffeine can slow down the rate at which tissue that becomes cirrhosis and cancer develops.

This isn’t an invitation to chug coffee all day, however. You don’t want to give yourself heart problems to fix liver problems.

  1. Coffee Has Antioxidants

Antioxidants are good, even if you don’t quite understand what they do. Simply put, they help maintain the cells in your body. So getting them in your diet is important.

Coffee is the biggest source of antioxidants that most people ingest. While it doesn’t contain the most antioxidants, coffee is what people consume the most of.

Other good sources are teas, certain berries, and red wine. But coffee has more antioxidants than teas and red wine. So feel free to ignore your aunt when she tells you that a bottle a day is healthy.

  1. Coffee Can Decrease Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

Another of the health benefits of coffee is the reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. Once again, the actual mechanism that causes this is not entirely known, but the results are well documented.

An interesting piece of information is that decaffeinated coffee doesn’t have the same effect as regular coffee. So it’s not a stretch of the imagination that the benefits lay in the caffeine within the coffee. Sorry to say for people who put additives in their drink, but too much sugar defeats the purpose.

  1. Coffee Can Help with Depression

While coffee won’t cure depression, it definitely helps. Some of the acids in coffee like the caffeic, cholorgenic, and ferulic acids help reduce inflammation. When these acids hit the nerves in the brain they can reduce the inflammation that comes with depression.

Coffee increases the production of dopamine and serotonin. These chemicals are what make you feel good and sometimes people with depression can’t produce as much as they need.

The antioxidants found in coffee also help for the same reason. Antioxidants act as an anti-inflammatory and can assist in the lessening of depression.

The energy boosting effects of a cup in the morning can also help. Sometimes getting going with the day isn’t possible without a kick of caffeine. Having all three benefits of coffee at once may be enough to get someone through the day.

  1. Coffee Can Reduce Certain Cancers

We already looked at liver cancer, but a few cups a day can have a notable effect on other cancers. Coffee is not a cure, but there is a possible link between coffee and reduced rates of certain cancers.

For men, six cups a day showed a lessened rate of prostate cancer. Four cups a day may reduce colon cancer.

Just remember that if you want to drink coffee for its anti-cancer properties you don’t start getting its negative effects. It’s safest to remember that while coffee is considered a beverage, caffeine is most certainly a drug. Caffeine is a stimulant and too much can be harmful, and cutting back on it too fast leads to withdrawal.

  1. Coffee Can Help with Memory

For the first thing in the morning, coffee works fantastically. One of its best features is the jumpstart it gives the brain. But over time coffee may help prevent the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Studies have shown that coffee consumption helps reduce the loss of cognitive function. Part of it may just be keeping the brain more active slows cognitive degeneration. Or caffeine may work in your brain to slow the causes of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

  1. Coffee Is Personal

For the first thing in the morning, there aren’t many things better than a good cup of coffee to get you going. Something about coffee just makes it feel like the day is ready to start. The easy answer is caffeine, but it can be more than that.

For some people, it’s the smell of it brewing that signals the start of the day. Other people work a more involved preparation in their morning ritual. The difference between a standard cup from a coffee maker and a French press is enough for some to toss their maker in the trash.

Even factors like where the beans were grown or whether or not you roasted the beans yourself make a big difference. People swear by self-roasting fresh beans. If you want to know more about roasting you can read more here.

So don’t rag on people for making overly complicated Starbucks orders or refusing to drink anything other than black. Everyone has their preferences and that’s what makes coffee so good. There’s no right or wrong way to flood your system with caffeine and antioxidants.

Put the Pot On

Take advantage of drinking coffee in the morning while you’re young, the benefits add up over time. And however you like it, you’re still getting the brain-saving, liver-helping, goodness. Check out our other health articles for ways to stay healthy.

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