We’re not saying coffee should wear a cape, but it does seem to have superpowers. Not to mention, it tastes delicious, gives you a reason to leave your desk at work, and it’s a great conversation starter.
Whether you’ve perfected how to use a french press and all your cups are barista-level, or you simply buy your coffee from your favorite shop, you’re receiving many health benefits from this superhero drink. If you’re not a coffee drinker, then now might be the time to make coffee one of your go-to beverages at home. Here’s why.
Coffee gives you more energy and helps you focus
One of the most common benefits of coffee is how it helps with alertness, giving you a boost of energy and helping you to focus. That’s because of the stimulant known as caffeine.
There’s a reason why so many people drink coffee in the morning, and that’s because it helps them focus and gives them a boost of energy when they’re tired. It doesn’t hurt that coffee both smells and tastes amazing (although it can be an acquired taste for some).
Coffee fights off diseases
Coffee’s health benefits are reason enough to drink coffee on a daily basis. It can reduce the risk of cancer, Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and heart disease. Given those facts, if coffee isn’t a superfood, then we don’t know what a superfood is.
As a friendly reminder, the average price of a cup of coffee in New York (a place where prices tend to be higher) is $3.12. Given the fact that coffee can reduce the risk of disease and is easy to consume, it’s worth every penny, especially since a cup only costs a few bucks.
It makes you smarter
Not only can coffee help with alertness, which helps you be more productive, be more present, do better work, but it can also help with cognitive function. According to Wiley Online Library, moderate caffeine consumption can improve your physical endurance, your mood, your feelings of fatigue, and your cognitive abilities like alertness and vigilance. Doing some minor kitchen remodeling by making space for a coffee maker could go a long way, especially if you do lots of work at home.
Coffee can increase your metabolism
While coffee alone isn’t going to lead you to the finish line of achieving fitness goals, it can help to increase your metabolism for short-term coffee drinkers. Here are some facts to back up that claim (via Healthline):
“Coffee contains a number of stimulants, most importantly caffeine. Not only does caffeine increase your metabolic rate, it also makes you more alert. By raising blood levels of epinephrine (adrenaline), caffeine promotes the release of fatty acids from fat tissue. Caffeine increases your resting metabolic rate, which means it increases the number of calories you burn at rest.”
It gives your body necessary antioxidants
If you aren’t yet convinced that coffee can make you healthier, then this should do the trick: coffee is chock-full of antioxidants. In fact, it has so many that you usually get more antioxidants from coffee than most other foods or drinks.
The word “antioxidant” gets thrown around a lot, but why are they actually important? According to Mayo Clinic, antioxidants protect the cells in your body from negative symptoms of free radicals, which are “molecules produced when your body breaks down food or is exposed to tobacco smoke and radiation.” These molecules can be factors in health problems like heart disease and cancer, so getting a steady supply of antioxidants is important. Not only does coffee make your life better, but it makes your life healthier too.