Is Coffee Good for your Health?

Love the smell of coffee? the delicious flavour and smooth feeling lingering in your mouth? … not to mention that stolen moment it gives you through the day?

There’s a reason you feel all of those good things. Research over the last decade is showing that habitually drinking 2-4 shots of good quality coffee each days may be good …

– good to boost your antioxidant intake,

 Dr Lisa Mosconi, author of “Brain Food: The Surprising Science of  Eating for Cognitive Power”, states that “Many studies have shown that doppio espresso [i.e., two shots of espresso] contains the highest amount of antioxidants (anti-ageing, free-radical-fighting nutrients) than any other beverage on the planet.”

– good for anti-ageing,

coffee might actually contribute to a longer healthier life, as research is showing it appears to slow down a range of factors related to ageing, such as chronic inflammation

– good for brain health,

As reported in “Medical News Today” Dr Donald Weaver, of the Krembil Brain Institute states “coffee consumption does seem to have some correlation to a decreased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.” His research showed “the benefits lie not in its caffeine content, but in the existence of compounds called phenylindanes released in the process of roasting the coffee beans.”

– good for giving you energy,

 It is widely known that coffee contains caffeine which is a mild stimulant speeding up messages between our brain and body

– good for fat-blasting

Research from the University of Nottingham is showing one cup of coffee is enough to stimulate the body’s brown fat-fighting defences. “Brown fat works in a different way to other fat in your body and produces heat by burning sugar and fat, often in response to cold. Increasing its activity improves blood sugar control as well as improving blood lipid levels and the extra calories burnt help with weight loss. However, until now, no one has found an acceptable way to stimulate its activity in humans,” explained study co-director Michael Symonds.

– and may be good for protecting you from heart disease and some cancers.

Time magazine reported a University of Colorado Medicine faculty study that is finding that “coffee drinking was linked to a lower risk of heart failure, stroke and coronary heart disease”. While Dr William Li, the author of “Eat to Beat Disease” recommends coffee in his list of “6 Foods to Eat to Beat Cancer”

Lucaffé gently roasts the coffee beans with hot air over a long period time.

The benefits of this are that the oils in the coffee stay soft and digestible, the anti-oxidants are not compromised and the flavour is true to the bean and not compromised by excessive heat.

Just keep in mind before you have your Stolen Moment, some of those things that can be added to coffee, like sugars and syrups might just outweigh all of those positives.