What Is Coffee?
The word ‘coffee’ leaves most of us with a smiling face. After all, it is the world’s favorite beverage. For most people, a day without coffee is a day wasted. It boosts them with energy and enthusiasm to face hard challenges and be victorious. Coffee is a liquid refreshment prepared by infusing or brewing roasted coffee beans or powder. Earlier, coffee was looked down upon as a beverage full of detrimental effects on health. Lately, however, studies have claimed it to be a boon to the human race.
Coffee contains caffeine, a natural tonic that imparts wakefulness to the brain, which enhances memory and improves mood, reaction times, and other rational functions. It also helps in better performance in physical activities. Coffee is also a treasure of many floral substances and antioxidants that are beneficial to health. In addition, it comprises nutrients like vitamin B complex, potassium, and riboflavin. However, coffee is a complex compound with specific adverse effects, mainly due to its high caffeine content.
What Are the Benefits of Coffee?
The various advantages of coffee are listed below:
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Increases Life Span: Coffee in appropriate amounts increases life span, particularly in women, and decreases mortality due to cardiovascular diseases, stroke (an interrupted blood supply to the brain causing brain damage), diabetes (high blood sugar), and kidney diseases. It has been proved that among coffee drinkers, the death rate is 25 percent less than nondrinkers.
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Improves Processing of Sugars: Coffee drinkers have a better operating ability for glucose and other sugars and are less sensitive to insulin, making them less prone to developing type-2 diabetes.
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Better Cardiac Functioning: Having a cup or two of coffee helps the weakened heart pump enough blood to the body and reduces the risk of cardiac failure, especially in old individuals.
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Symptomatic Relief in Parkinsonism: Caffeine provides symptomatic relief in neuromuscular coordination, like in those who have Parkinson’s disease (a progressive nervous system disorder that affects movement). It also decreases the chances of developing such a disease.
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Enhances Liver Functions: All types of coffee aid in the functioning of the liver and protect it. Coffee drinkers better retain the normal liver enzyme levels than nondrinkers.
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Provide Stronger DNA: Dark coffee makes the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) strands stronger and prevents breakage. Though breaking of the DNA strands is a natural process, it can cause cancer or tumors if the body does not repair the broken strands.
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Decreases the Risk of Cancers: Coffee in all its varieties reduces the risk of developing colorectal cancer, specifically in women. It also decreases the probability of having prostate cancer in men and endometrial cancer in women. Coffee also protects against developing basal cell carcinoma.
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Lowers the Chances of Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia: Caffeine in average quantities lowers the chances of getting Alzheimer’s disease (a condition that affects memory and mental functions) and dementia (thinking or social signs and symptoms that affect daily functioning), especially in older women.
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Less Probability of Having a Stroke: Women regularly taking at least a cup of coffee are less likely to have a stroke and die because of it.
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Enhances Physical Performance: A cup of black coffee raises adrenaline levels in the blood, which improves physical performance by 11 to 12 percent, so many people prefer to grab a cup of black coffee at least an hour before their activity.
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Aids in Weight Loss: Coffee is a source of magnesium and potassium, which assist the human body in utilizing insulin, maintaining normal glucose levels, and decreasing sugar cravings. All these collectively help one lose some extra pounds and get into shape.
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Burns Body Fat: Caffeine uses body fat as sustenance for exercise and reduces fat accumulation in the body.
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Provides General Protection: Coffee is a rich source of antioxidants and provides overall protection to the body against free radicals responsible for causing great damage to the body.
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Elevates Mood and Confronts Depression: Coffee increases the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline that help boost mood, fight depression, and decrease suicidal tendencies.
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Improves Focus and Concentration: An optimal caffeine intake increases mental alertness and helps focus better.
What Are the Harmful Effects of Coffee?
Besides a plethora of health benefits, coffee possesses some disadvantages to health. The demerits and their precautions are as follows:
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Do Not Overdrink: Consumption of coffee should be limited to four cups a day, each measuring about 0.002 to 0.003 ounces of caffeine. Experts have advised taking only up to 0.01 ounces of caffeine per day.
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Slashing the Intake in Pregnancy: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has recommended the dosage of caffeine up to 0.01 ounces in a day, that is, two cups for pregnant women. The increased intake may cause harm to the developing fetus.
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Avoid Having the Coffee in Late Hours: Coffee should be drunk by the afternoon as it remains in the body longer than usual. Consuming it later in the evening or after having dinner should be avoided, as it can lead to a sleepless night.
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Look Out for Coffee Additives: Coffee is often added with whipped cream, flavored syrups, and sugar, which are mainly unhealthy. Coffee with such additives should not be consumed frequently, or other healthy add-ons can be used.
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Give Coffee a Miss in Hypertensive Patients: Coffee has a high caffeine content, raising blood pressure temporarily, so it should be avoided in hypertensive patients.
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Choosing Filtered Coffee: Cafestol and kahweol are present in coffee beans, which may mildly elevate the LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol levels in the body. However, filtered coffee is considered devoid of these ingredients as they get trapped in the filter. But other types of cooked coffee do contain them.
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Keep the Coffee Away from Children: Coffee intake may increase enuresis (bedwetting) in children aged five to seven years. Yet, this has not been confirmed by research.
How Much Caffeine Is Present in Coffee?
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French Press: The coffee made in this machine has lots of caffeine. One obtains coffee from a French press by infusing the grounds along with hot water and pressing them with a plunger to separate the coffee from the water.
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Espresso Machine: This machine is used to make coffee by pressing water through the grounds, and it gives flavorful compounds without caffeine. Espresso contains lesser amounts of caffeine than regular coffee.
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Percolators: This machine runs over the coffee ground over and over and thus contains a lot of caffeine.
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Drip Machines: The caffeine extracted from the water after zipping through the grounds is collected into the pitcher which gets stuck to the paper filter. However, if the steel filter is used, caffeine gets into the pitcher through water.
Conclusion
Coffee is a complicated beverage with benefits and side effects, so it needs to be brewed carefully. It can be enjoyed brimming while keeping the pitfalls in mind. Beware of its detrimental effects and discontinue it if they manifest themselves. Its sensitivity differs from one individual to another, which should also be considered.