I have to credit my bud Will (Brink) for that line, but it’s true enough, as far as I’m concerned.\u00a0 While I don’t drink it during the day, a solid “jolt” of java is an irreplaceable\u00a0part of my morning routine.\u00a0 A tall, steaming cup of fresh ground\/brewed coffee is always waiting for me on my desk when I crawl out of bed at 5:00 a.m (thanks, John!).\u00a0 It helps me make a reasonably graceful transition into “work mode” each morning.<\/p>\n
For years, however, I considered this a vice.\u00a0 Like everyone else interested in health\/longevity, I believed coffee was a no-no. Fortunately, my inner slug won out over my good intentions – life just wasn’t the same without it.\u00a0 As I\u00a0rationalized it, everyone has\u00a0a bad habit or two,\u00a0so that a.m. coffee would be mine.\u00a0 But I don’t have to\u00a0rationalize it anymore: over the last few years, a new appreciation for the stuff has emerged.\u00a0 While coffee\u00a0may not\u00a0fit most people’s conception\u00a0of\u00a0a health food, the current consensus is that there are few drawbacks, and several potential benefits associated with the brew.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n …Diabetes: <\/strong>Twenty studies worldwide show that coffee, both regular and decaf, lowers the risk for Type 2 diabetes, in some studies by as much as 50%…<\/p>\n …Heart disease and stroke:<\/strong> Recent studies suggest that frequent coffee consumption does not increase the risk of either condition. In fact, coffee might — repeat, might — slightly reduce the risk of stroke.<\/p>\n …Cancer:<\/strong> Coffee research has come up empty here — with one big exception: liver cancer. Research consistently shows a drop in liver cancer risk with coffee consumption, and there is some, albeit weaker, evidence that it may lower colon cancer risk as well.<\/p>\n …Cirrhosis: <\/strong>Coffee seems to protect the liver against cirrhosis, especially that caused by alcoholism. It’s not clear, either for cancer or cirrhosis, whether it’s coffee or caffeine that may be protective.<\/p>\n …Parkinson’s disease:<\/strong> With this progressive, neurological illness, it’s the caffeine, not coffee, that carries the benefit. No one knows for sure why caffeine protects. Several studies show that coffee drinkers, men especially, appear to have half the risk of Parkinson’s compared with nondrinkers.<\/p>\n …Athletic performance: <\/strong>It’s clear that caffeine, not coffee per se, delivers the big boost here, said Graham, the researcher from Ontario. In fact, caffeine was once deemed a controlled substance by the International Olympic Committee. Caffeine is a powerful “ergogenic agent,” meaning it promotes the ability of muscles to work. Studies show that caffeine boosts performance in both very short and very long athletic events…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Not bad, eh?\u00a0 While caffeine has its negative aspects, coffee\u00a0contains a lot more than caffeine.\u00a0 For example,\u00a0coffee’s the number one source of antioxidants in the American diet<\/a>\u00a0– which may help to explain its apparent healthful effects.<\/p>\n Of course, like anything else, coffee can be overdone, and people who are sensitive to caffeine may need to limit their consumption (or switch to decaf).\u00a0 But it’s clear that coffee drinking is NOT a habit that people need to give up when they’re looking to get into shape and improve their health…unless they’re getting it from Starbucks, laden with sugar, syrup and whipped cream<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have to credit my bud Will (Brink) for that line, but it’s true enough, as far as I’m concerned.\u00a0 While I don’t drink it during the day, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,28],"tags":[146,171,289,379,393,494,954,1029,1243],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1931"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10258,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions\/10258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}