Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world, and yet up to 40 million people in the U.S. avoid it completely. Why? Drinking conventional coffee can result in digestive irritation, jittery feelings, and even nausea due to the pesticides used during the growing process, high toxin levels, and high acidity levels created by the roasting process.
When you drink a high-quality cup of java – like Longevity Coffee – made from certified organic, low-acid beans, it can make all the difference. No more digestive upset AND you receive some great health benefits too!
Here are some best-known health benefits associated with drinking coffee:
1. Lots of Antioxidants
Antioxidants support health at the micro-level by neutralizing free radicals to promote healthy cell life. Raw green coffee beans contain almost 1,000 antioxidants, and hundreds more develop when the coffee beans are roasted correctly.
Polyphenols are the antioxidant phytochemicals found in coffee. These polyphenols support decreased oxidative stress in the body, which support a healthy inflammatory response within the body. Inflammation is thought to be an underlying cause of many chronic conditions, so drinking coffee may support a reduced risk of long-term disease.
2. Makes You Smarter
No one denies that coffee helps people feel more alert and have more energy, but can coffee really make you smarter? It certainly seems to help! This is because the caffeine in coffee stimulates the areas of the brain responsible for remembrance and concentration, providing a bonus boost to short-term memory.
By blocking an inhibitory neurotransmitter called adenosine, which leads to rising norepinephrine and dopamine levels, coffee promotes increased alertness, enhances formation and retrieval of memory, and focuses our attention. Rising levels of dopamine lead to neurons firing with intensified strength, which supports improved cognition, learning, attention, memory, desire, motivation, mood, and behavior.
3. Supports Healthy Brain Function
When caffeine enters the brain and blocks adenosine, other chemicals like dopamine and glutamate are stimulated. This may slow age-related decline by preventing the buildup of beta-amyloid plaque, which is associated with damaging nerve cells in the brain and progressive neurological decline.
Many bioactive compounds in coffee support a healthy inflammatory response, which in turn supports healthier brain activity and overall superior cognitive health. Be sure to drink only certified organic coffee so toxic pesticides aren’t negating all these brain-supporting benefits!
4. Helps You Focus
Coffee provides a ‘stimulus-barrier benefit’. Drinking less than one average cup of coffee (75mg of caffeine) can increase both selective and sustained attention, supporting the ability to focus on tasks without getting distracted.
For people working in a noisy or chaotic environment, this can really help with concentration by lowering sensory sensitivity to distractions.
5. Makes You Happy
Have you ever walked by a coffee shop and immediately perked up? Did you know that even just smelling coffee is linked with happiness? The aroma of coffee includes 900 different volatile chemicals and many of these are pharmacologically active!
Olfactory nerves run directly to the brain, so this kind of stimulation carries cheerful messages to your brain almost immediately. The caffeine in coffee also increases serotonin, which supports a lift in spirits. This “feel-good” feeling makes coffee the most widely consumed psychoactive drink in the world.
6. Increased Longevity
Inflammation is an important function of the immune system. It helps to fight off infections and remove toxins. However, our bodies become less effective at managing inflammation as we age. Consuming caffeine in the form of certified organic, low acid coffee may support the body’s natural response to this age-related inflammation, which is also linked with age-related disease.
Older people over the age of 60 with low levels of inflammation are often caffeine drinkers. People with high blood pressure and stiff arteries — signs of heart disease — often report drinking less or no caffeine. In a recent study, scientists sought to explore this phenomenon by adding inflammation-causing compounds to human immune cells, and then adding caffeine. The caffeine actually prevented the compounds from having inflammatory effects! Through this research, scientists may begin to better understand the markers of inflammation and aging.
Coffee drinkers have historically been less likely to suffer from diseases, so this new research may indicate that coffee holds an important key to longevity!
7. Improves Physical Performance
The caffeine in coffee increases alertness, often improving the ability to prolong tasks. However, this isn’t limited to performing mental tasks – it includes physical ones as well, enabling you to do things like exercise longer.
Caffeine increases epinephrine (adrenaline) levels in the blood. This is the “fight or flight” hormone that supports our bodies when intense physical exertion is needed. Caffeine is a performance and endurance enhancer; not only does it fight fatigue, but it also strengthens muscle contraction, reduces the exerciser’s perception of pain, and increases fatty acids in the blood, which supports endurance. This is why many people enjoy coffee before a workout!
8. Supports a Healthy Liver
The liver makes blood and clotting proteins, lipoproteins, and 80% of our cholesterol. It filters and cleans blood, makes bile for digestion, makes and breaks down hormones, regulates blood sugar, supports the healthy elimination of harmful toxins from the body – and much more! In a nutshell, a healthy liver is essential for human life.
Elevated levels of liver enzymes in the blood typically reflect inflammation and damage to the liver caused by disease. Organic coffee (that ensures no additional toxic pesticide or herbicide load) appears to support lower levels of these enzymes. Therefore, drinking certified organic coffee may support a healthy, more resilient liver.
9. Supports Healthy Weight-Loss
Caffeine is often used in weight-loss programs. This is because it has been known to temporarily suppress the appetite and encourage thermogenesis (one way your body generates heat and energy from digesting food), which may support faster calorie burning.
Ingesting coffee jumpstarts the process of lipolysis, which is when your body releases free fatty acids into the bloodstream, breaking down fat stores and other lipids to convert them into energy. In other words, caffeine boosts your metabolic rate by and helps you burn more fat – sometimes by as much as 30% more!
Note: Your body can burn fat more efficiently when it’s not worried about removing the toxins it’s getting from non-organic coffee, so choose your coffee brand wisely!
10. Contains Essential Nutrients
Coffee contains small amounts of several vitamins and minerals, including Vitamin E, Riboflavin, Pantothenic Acid, Manganese, Potassium, Magnesium, and Niacin. Riboflavin is important because it helps carry out chemical reactions that support the breakdown of nutrients into your body from the food you eat. Vitamin B-5, or pantothenic acid, helps maintain the health of your digestive tract, normal adrenal function, and healthy red blood cell proliferation. Magnesium supports healthy heart and muscle function, robust teeth and bones, and contributes to the production of energy within your cells.
All of these nutrients are essential to health, and though coffee should not replace other sources of nutrition, it is comforting to know that it benefits your body on a cellular level while you reap the rewards of so many of these other benefits as well.
Your morning cup of coffee provides more than a jolt of energy – it can also have significant health and well-being benefits over time.
Despite the mixed media reviews about drinking coffee, if you are careful to select only certified organic, low acid coffee, you should feel good about your choice to consume this body-benefitting beverage.