Article - Benefits of Coffee

My dad and I really love coffee, we often enjoy our coffee together. In our family, only me and my dad who can enjoy coffee, and differ which coffee is delicious and which one is not.
One of my dad's friend once told me that it's not good for my heart if I consume coffee. But now I know that he was wrong after reading these articles.

The first one comes from longevity.about.com:

Coffee – An Overlooked Health and Anti Aging Food

In the past, coffee (like wine) has been overlooked as a healthy food. There has always been some level of suspicion around coffee and its long-term impact on health. For some reason, coffee has this association of being unhealthy. Well, (thank goodness) it looks like that link between coffee and unhealthiness is wrong. In fact, there is a good bit of evidence that coffee is good for you and it may even be good for you. This is important, considering more than half of the people in the U.S. drink coffee every day.

Why Coffee Is A Superfood?

It looks like coffee has two main ways of improving the health of your body: antioxidants and caffeine. Both these substances have health and anti aging benefits. Antioxidants, for example, help your body repair damage to cells caused by free radicals (which are produced as a byproduct of cells just doing their daily thing). Caffeine has been shown to help improve a range of symptoms and may even be important in fighting of Parkinson’s Disease and other age-related brain problems. Coffee is loaded with both antioxidants and caffeine, and each has different potential benefits for improving health and reducing the risk of chronic illnesses.

Health Benefits of Coffee

I scoured the internet to find reliable sources of the health benefits of coffee. Type "coffee" into pubmed (the database of medical research) and your get almost 7,000 results back. Below are some of the major findings about health, life expectancy and coffee.

• Heart Disease (up to 25% reduction in mortality risk (for women))
• Diabetes (up to 60% reduced risk)
• Dementia (up to 65% reduced risk)
• Colon Cancer (up to 25% reduced risk)
• Cirrhosis (up to 80% reduced risk)
• Gallstones (almost 50% reduced risk)
• Parkinson’s Disease (up to 80% reduced risk – probably because of caffeine)
• Headache Relief (because of the caffeine)
• Asthma Relief (caffeine again)
• Cavity Protection (because of anti-bacterial and anti-adhesive properties of compounds within coffee)

See? Coffee doesn't cause heart disease. It even reduce the risk!

There is one more interesting articles about Coffee Health Benefits, from health.harvard.edu:

It’s surprising when something that was once considered questionable for your health turns out to have health benefits, usually with the proviso to use it “in moderation.” That happened with chocolate and alcohol, and now it is coffee’s turn, reports the February issue of the Harvard Health Letter. Here’s some of the mostly good news about coffee:

• Blood pressure. Results from long-term studies are showing that coffee may not increase the risk for high blood pressure over time, as previously thought. Study findings for other cardiovascular effects are a mixed bag.

• Cancer. Coffee might have anti-cancer properties. Last year, researchers found that coffee drinkers were 50% less likely to get liver cancer than nondrinkers. A few studies have found ties to lower rates of colon, breast, and rectal cancers.

• Cholesterol. Two substances in coffee — kahweol and cafestol — raise cholesterol levels. Paper filters capture these substances, but that doesn’t help the many people who now drink non-filtered coffee drinks, such as lattes. Researchers have also found a link between cholesterol increases and decaffeinated coffee, possibly because of the type of bean used to make certain decaffeinated coffees.

• Diabetes. Heavy coffee drinkers may be half as likely to get diabetes as light drinkers or nondrinkers. Coffee may contain chemicals that lower blood sugar. A coffee habit may also increase your resting metabolism rate, which could help keep diabetes at bay.

• Parkinson’s disease. Coffee seems to protect men, but not women, against Parkinson’s disease. One possible explanation for the sex difference may be that estrogen and caffeine need the same enzymes to be metabolized, and estrogen captures those enzymes.

Oh, I do love Coffee even more!