In China, coffee is becoming more and more popular, and the coffee culture that comes with it fills every moment of life. Coffee is increasingly associated with modern life, whether at home, in the office or in social situations, with coffeehouses everywhere becoming great places for people to talk, listen to music and have a rest. Statistics show that China’s coffee consumption is rising year by year and promises to become the world’s largest consumer of coffee. Why do people like to drink coffee? Here are 9 reasons why coffee may actually be one of the healthiest beverages on the planet.
- Coffee reduces risk of cancers
The polyphenols in coffee are a powerful antioxidant. Drinking coffee every day has a protective effect against cancer. For example, there are reports that women who drink more than three cups of caffeinated coffee a day have a 21{6c3fb9a960c74d0602e07c62e28f4281499db4952127d3c7b07e7c09322f75f6} lower risk of basal cell cancer than those who drink less than one cup a month, and that if women can drink 4-6 cups of coffee a day, the incidence of breast cancer may be reduced by 25{6c3fb9a960c74d0602e07c62e28f4281499db4952127d3c7b07e7c09322f75f6} to 70{6c3fb9a960c74d0602e07c62e28f4281499db4952127d3c7b07e7c09322f75f6}, even if women have a history of breast cancer. This is because substances in coffee can affect the production of a hormone called estrogen in the body. Some scientists thought that caffeine might inhibit aromatase, which is an enzyme critical for the synthesis of estrogen in the body. But more research is still needed to determine the relationship between drinking coffee and the risk of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer or estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer.
- Coffee protects your liver
In recent years, there has been increasing evidence that coffee reduces the risk of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Coffee is also rich in polyphenols that protect the liver. Some studies suggest that hepatitis patients may benefit from drinking coffee, which is good for liver cell repair. Coffee may help alcoholics, overweight people, and people with diabetes or iron overload reduce the risk of liver disease, but there is no evidence that coffee and tea reduce people’s risk of fatty liver or chronic hepatitis.
- Coffee helps relieve exercise soreness
Drinking two cups of coffee after exercise can help ease muscle soreness symptoms, a study reports. Drinking coffee can help people relieve muscle pain caused by excessive exercise. Caffeine, while having an effect on pain relief from exercise, tends to work only for people who don’t drink coffee as often.
- Coffee is beneficial to the skin
Coffee can accelerate the metabolism of the skin, accelerate the expulsion of discarded cutin, and reduce the appearance of under-eye circles.
- Coffee prevents depression
Regular coffee drinkers are less irritable, as coffee improves mood. When you are irritable or depressed, a cup of coffee may calm your mood.
- Coffee prevents alcoholism
The chlorogenic acid in coffee prevents alcoholism. Drinking coffee causes the acetaldehyde, which is converted from alcohol, to oxidize rapidly, break down into water and carbon dioxide and be expelled from the body.
- Coffee helps digestion after meals
Drinking coffee after a meal is good for your stomach health. But relatively, if your stomach is empty, drinking coffee may stimulate secretion of gastric juice, which will damage gastric mucosa and then damage the stomach health. People who love to eat meat had better drink a cup of coffee after dinner, because it can help digestion. In addition, the content of soluble dietary fiber in coffee is higher than that of orange juice, and caffeine can stimulate intestinal motility. Therefore, drinking coffee has the effect of relieving constipation.
- Coffee prevents radiation injury
Radiation injury has become a more prominent type of pollution and hazard at present. In particular, radiation from household appliances, such as computers, microwaves, televisions, etc. Radiation exposure, especially for pregnant women, has affected the health of the next generation. Studies have indeed shown that coffee may help to prevent radiation injury.
- Coffee prevents gallstone disease
Some studies have suggested that caffeinated coffee can stimulate gallbladder contraction and reduce people’s risk of developing the most common, more painful gallstone disease.
Even though coffee in moderate amounts is good for you, it can be harmful if you drink too much of it. To make sure to preserve the health benefits, don’t put sugar or anything unhealthy in your coffee! If it tends to affect your sleep, then don’t drink it after 2 o’clock in the afternoon.
There are a variety of chemical ingredients in coffee beans, such as caffeine, tannin, thiamin, xanthine, spermidine, guaiacol, citric acid, chlorogenic acid, acetaldehyde, spermine, etc. Research on the effect of coffee in myoblasts has established that certain coffee compounds may significantly affect gene expression in the cell, and many metabolic and antioxidant genes are among the most affected. But since there are various ingredients in coffee, it requires a lot of work to completely understand how coffee affects all aspects of health.
Debbie Qiu is a writer and usually writes articles on topics such as lifestyles. She works at Cusabio, a company in the field of life sciences that offers enzymes, hormones, proteins, and other reagents used in biomedical research.