Can we have a drink that is delicious and nutritious? Yes, coffee is the drink for you. Let’s learn some nutrition facts and health benefits of coffee. Coffee is the healthiest drink and the most consumed after water. It is also a very rich source of various vitamins and nutrients.
What are some Nutrition Facts And Health Benefits Of Coffee? Coffee is the richest source of antioxidants in the western diet. It protects our body against various heart diseases and several types of cancer. It also helps improve overall health, memory, and physical performance. It can help with anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders. It can also help you be more energetic. All the nutrients present in coffee add up and help in the betterment of the immune system. All of this helps in an overall healthier and longer life.
Coffee contains caffeine which stimulates the nervous system, which increases epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, levels in your blood preparing your body for physical exertion. It helps people with type 2 diabetes increase their life span and live healthier lives. When a person consumes 2 to 3 cups of coffee in a day, they reduce their risk of heart failure and improve their blood pressure. It also aids in reducing the tendencies of strokes. Coffee is also a good way to strengthen your metabolism which helps in weight loss. Coffee can also increase alertness and focus. It helps fight against various forms of emotional distress and improve mood. Coffee improves memory by reducing the risk of memory-related diseases.
Table of Contents
Health Benefits Of Coffee
- Boosts physical performance
- Helps burn fats
- Help stay alert and focus better
- Contains a large number of essential nutrients
- Makes you happy and helps fight depression
- It May help the body process sugar better
- May Protect Liver
Pros And Cons Of Coffee Consumption
Coffee has a large number of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and few dietary proteins, but with all these benefits it may have some negative effects on the body when abused or overconsumed.
| Benefits Of Coffee | Drawbacks Of Coffee |
| Can help reduce the risk of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s | Can raise blood Pressure |
| Can help reduce the risk of gallstones and asthma attacks | Can stain teeth |
| Can help reduce strokes | Can change the sleep patterns |
| Can help prevent cancer and type 2 diabetes | Acids in coffee can aggravate heartburn |
| Can help increase the effectiveness of certain types of painkillers | Can hamper’s the absorption of some vitamins and minerals |
7 Health Benefits Of Coffee
May Help Improve Physical Performance
Coffee contains caffeine which stimulates your nervous system, signaling your body to break down fat cells. But this also increases epinephrine (adrenaline) levels in your blood. This hormone is the fight-or-flight hormone, which prepares your body for intense physical exertion. Caffeine breaks down body fat which making free fatty acids available for our body to be used as fuel.
Given these effects of caffeine, it’s unsurprising that caffeine can improve an average physical performance by 13 to 15%. This shows that coffee can be a really good pre-workout drink if taken 30-45 mins before a workout.
May Make You Happier And Fight Depression
Depression is one of the most common mental disorders that can affect the quality of your life. If you look at the numbers about 4.3% of people in the US meet the criteria for clinical depression. A study on 200,000+ individuals found that those who drank 4 or more cups of coffee every day were 50% less likely to die by suicide. A Harvard study was done in 2011, also shows that women who drink 4 or more cups of coffee a day had a 25% lower risk of suffering from depression.
May Protect You Against Certain Types of Cancer
Cancer falls under the world’s leading cause of death. It is nothing but uncontrolled cell growth in the body. Among the various types of cancers, coffee has shown to be a preventative against liver cancer and colorectal cancer. On the list of causes of deaths caused by cancer, liver cancer is on the 3rd rank and colorectal is in 4th. Various studies show that a person who is a coffee drinker has about 40% fewer chances of liver cancer. A study done on 400,000+ people has also shown that people who drink 4 to 5 cups of coffee in a day have a 17% lower chance of colorectal cancer.
May Help Burn Fat
Caffeine is one of the few naturally occurring substances which actually helps with burning fats, which is why it is one of the most commonly used ingredients in fat-burning supplements. Various types of research conclude that caffeine can help in boosting one’s metabolic rate by 4 to 11% and it can also boost the process of burning fats by 9 to 11% in people with obesity and 28 to 30 % in lean people. Although, there is a possibility that long-term coffee drinkers may become a little resistant to these benefits over time which means that they receive the benefits but not as much as the rest.
May Make You Smarter
Coffee has proven to actually make people smarter, which makes it much more than something to just keep you awake. The caffeine present in coffee is a stimulant and is the most common psychoactive ingredient. Caffeine blocks the effects of adenosine – an inhibitory neurotransmitter. This releases other neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine and increases the neural firing in the brain. Various studies have concluded that caffeine can temporarily improve reaction time, memory, mood, vigilance, and various other functions performed by the brain
May Help You Live Longer
As coffee drinkers are less likely to get many diseases, it makes sense that coffee helps us live longer. Several studies observed that if you drink coffee you have a chance of living longer. A large observational study showed that coffee drinkers over the age of 20 to 23 are associated with a 25% increased lifespan in men and 27% in women, the effect of coffee is stronger in people with type 2 diabetes. A study was done that observed people for 20 years shows that people who have type 2 diabetes and drank coffee showed a 35% increased life expectancy.
Coffee For Heart Health
A study done in 2012 observed people who drank coffee in moderation or 2 to 3 cups a day, showed that it may be helpful in protecting against heart failure, showing people who drank coffee have an 11 to 13% lower risk of heart failure than people who don’t drink coffee. Another study from 2017 shows that caffeine intake may have a small benefit for cardiovascular health, which may include blood pressure and heart failure. On the other hand, some studies show that drinking a reasonably high amount of coffee, anything more than 5 to 7 cups results in high cholesterol and blood lipids levels.
More About Nutrition Facts And Health Benefits Of Coffee
Full Of Nutrients And Antioxidants
Coffee is much more than just black-colored water. The coffee beans have various nutrients which make their way into the final drink, which holds onto a good amount of vitamins and minerals.
One cup of coffee contains
- 11% vitamin B2 (riboflavin)*
- 2% vitamin B3 and B1 (niacin and thiamine)*
- 6% vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid)*
- 3% potassium and manganese*
* Is Recommended Dietary Allowances
It may not feel like a lot, but drinking a few cups of coffee in a day soon becomes several cups before you realize it. Coffee beans are rich in a form of antioxidant named polyphenol, making coffee a hefty source of antioxidants. So much so that it is considered one of the largest sources of antioxidants, above various types of veggies and fruits. Antioxidants help our body fight free radicals – waste created by our body as an outcome of certain bodily functions and processes. These free radicals can be toxic and cause inflammation of several kinds.
After various types of research, scientists concluded that inflammation caused by free radicals can contribute to a range of metabolic syndromes like obesity, and type 2 diabetes to name a few. Research also concluded that the antioxidants present in coffee can act as a shield against these metabolic syndromes. Consuming several cups of coffee adds up over the day, quicker than you would assume, amplifying the benefits that we receive from it.
Coffee without cream, milk, or sugar (regular black coffee) is quite low in calories, containing only 2 to 3 calories per cup. But these calories are bound to go up if you enjoy your coffee with some cream and some sugar.
Nutritional Facts
The definition of healthy varies from person to person. Similarly deciding whether coffee is healthy or not is based on how you describe the term healthy. For someone who wants to consume coffee without fats, carbs, and calories; a cup of plain black coffee is the right fit.
Following is the nutrition information of a cup of plain black coffee without any sugar, milk, or cream
- Carbohydrates: 0 grams
- Fats: 0 grams
- Sugar: 0 grams
- Sodium: 6 milligrams
- Fiber: 0 grams
- Protein: 0.3 grams
- Calories: 1
Coffee starts to get concerning when sugar, syrups, milk, whipped cream, or other flavoring ingredients are added to it. By adding all of these, the calorific value of coffee becomes equal to a jumbo slice of cake.
A 500ml frappuccino containing most of all of the above-mentioned ingredients comes down to a whopping 420 to 430 calories, containing around 73 to 75 grams of net carbs and around 15 grams of saturated fat. It is also the same as eating 20 chocolate chip cookies.
Some Other Facts About Coffee
Second Largest Traded Commodity
Coffee is consumed in such huge amounts that it is the 2nd greatest traded commodity after crude oil. It is on the 2nd rank of our favorite drinks right after water. It is a $100 billion industry worldwide.
Was Banned In Mecca
In Mecca, it was believed that coffee promotes and stimulates idleness and radical thinking. Hence, in the year 1511, shortly after it appeared in Ethiopia, mecca banned coffee.
Keep It Warm By Adding Cream
If you add cream to your coffee, it will stay warmer for 25% longer. According to a physicist, it might have something to do with the principle that makes hot water a better choice for making ice cubes.
A Goat Herder Discovered Coffee
Would you believe if I were to say that, in the 1500s, somewhere in Ethiopia, a goat discovered coffee? The goat herder saw the goats munching on the coffee cherries and later saw that the goats were behaving differently. They were more energetic and stayed awake all night. When the herder shared his observation with the local monks, they figured a way to make a drink out of the same coffee beans. After consuming the drink, they realized that it gave them the energy to stay up all night and pray. The news of this miraculous bean spread to the other monks and slowly spread worldwide.
“Espresso”
The word ‘espresso’ is an Italian word that means ‘expressed’ or ‘forced out.’ Espresso is made by forcing out extremely hot water through compact and fine ground coffee beans, under high pressure.
Nutritional Value Of Some Coffee Drinks
Nutritional Value Per Cup Of Coffee
1 cup (8 fl oz) (237 g)
- Calories 1
- Total Fat 0 g 0%
- Saturated fat 0 g 0%
- Polyunsaturated fat 0 g
- Monounsaturated fat 0 g
- Trans fat regulation 0 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg 0%
- Sodium 4.7 mg 0%
- Potassium 116.1 mg 3%
- Total Carbohydrate 0 g 0%
- Dietary fiber 0 g 0%
- Sugar 0 g
- Protein 0.3 g 0%
- Caffeine 94.8 mg
- Vitamin A 0%
- Vitamin C 0%
- Calcium 0%
- Iron 0%
- Vitamin D 0%
- Vitamin B-6 0%
- Cobalamin 0%
- Magnesium 1%
*% is Recommended Dietary Allowances, Sources include: USDA & Wikipedia
Cappuccino Nutritional Value
350 ml serving: 10 grams carbs, 80 to 120 calories
475 ml serving: 15 grams carbs, 100 to 180 calories
600 ml serving: 17 grams carbs, 130 to 210 calories
Latte Nutritional Value
350 ml serving: 16 grams carbs, 120 to 200 calories
475 ml serving: 21 grams carbs, 160 to 260 calories
600 ml serving: 27 grams carbs, 210 to 340 calories
Mocha Nutritional Value
350 ml serving: 30 to 35 grams carbs, 170 to 360 calories
475 ml serving: 33 to 40 grams carbs, 210 to 430 calories
600 ml serving: 45 to 55 grams carbs, 260 to 490 calories
*depending on milk
Disclaimer: Even though moderate coffee consumption is proven good for you, drinking way too much is still going to bring negative effects and can be harmful. Many of the studies above are natural observations. Such studies show positive associations but it cant stand as proof that coffee alone caused the benefits. For best results keep your coffee consumption without sugar and if coffee tends to affect your sleep patterns, do not consume coffee after 3 or 4 in the afternoon. You may get different side effects too and hence it’s advisable to talk to your nutritionist beforehand. But one thing stands as a fact that coffee is one of the healthiest drinks on the planet.
