According to official statistics, coffee in Russia is one of the most popular drinks. Indeed, its wonderful, invigorating aroma awakens the still dormant consciousness that has not completely recovered from sleep in the morning.
Many people usually start their working day in the office with a cup of coffee: they need to drink a mug before lunch, drink a small plastic cup from the machine during their smoke break, and finally, after lunch, have a pleasant, sticky siesta with their colleagues, talking over coffee. And even in the evening, almost before bed, after family troubles, sometimes you can’t do without your favorite drink...
Many people, analyzing their coffee passion, suddenly wonder if coffee in such quantities is harmful to health? As soon as a worm of doubt settles in, anxiety grows with each mug you drink, thoughts about coffee addiction become more and more oppressive, some hypochondriacs and paranoids even begin to look for a lot of specific symptoms in their body of the supposedly negative influence of coffee: insomnia, depression, rapid heartbeat, nervousness, etc. d.
Man, as we know, is generally by nature prone to doubts, especially when they concern his precious well-being. And in order to finally dot the i’s on the question of whether coffee is good or bad for health, you need to understand the topic thoroughly.
Coffee is a source of antioxidants
Coffee contains 4 times more antioxidants than green tea.
In addition, roasting coffee beans does not reduce their quantity at all, but rather increases it.
Antioxidants eliminate damage from stray molecules - free radicals, which destroy DNA and harm the body's cells.
Free radicals cause premature aging, brain damage, affect the immune and nervous systems and cause other health problems, and coffee helps neutralize stray molecules and avoid all these troubles.
The effect of coffee on digestion
Gastrointestinal tract
- this is exactly the system that is the first to take the coffee blow.
Getting into an empty stomach
, the drink irritates the mucous membranes and increases acidity. Over time, heartburn, pain, bloating and other unpleasant symptoms appear.
If you don't give them any importance
, you can easily get serious diseases: gastritis, ulcers, esophagitis and others.
In this case, you will have to undergo long-term treatment and a strict diet. By the way, no coffee.
Important!
Coffee is rich in organic acids. Scientists have discovered at least five of them in grains. It is the acids that are responsible for poor digestion.
Coffee helps your liver, especially if you're a heavy drinker
In 2006, a study was published that included 125,000 people over 22 years of age. The results showed that people who drink at least one cup of coffee a day have a 20% reduced risk of liver cirrhosis.
Arthur Klatsky, lead author of the study, explained that coffee consumption confers protective effects against liver cirrhosis caused by alcohol consumption.
The more coffee a person consumes, the lower the risk of rapid progression to cirrhosis, hospitalization and death.
In addition, a study from the NUS Graduate Medical School found that coffee helps prevent the development of fatty liver disease. So, by drinking more than four cups of tea or coffee a day, you insure yourself against fatty liver disease.
Formula “3 coffee cups”
Taking into account all the officially confirmed medical data on the health benefits of coffee for athletes, one small but important nuance should be taken into account. The fact is that coffee, like any other stimulating drink, is beneficial only if consumed in moderation. In other words, it is better for the same athletes to ask themselves not the question “should they drink a cup or two of coffee before training,” but think about how many of these coffee cups will definitely benefit them?
To answer this question, you should first think about this: how much of your favorite drink does an average, non-sports coffee drinker drink per day? Statistics say that the daily dose of the most desperate record holders can vary from 6 to 10 cups of coffee. Dividing the extreme number 10 in half, we get an extreme portion of the coffee dose for an athlete, that is, the maximum he could drink is no more than 5 mugs. And the average, optimal number is only three cups.
At the same time, it would be good to listen to the recommendations of professional nutritionists, who directly say that if you drink coffee before training, it is better to do so no later than two hours before it starts. By drinking just two cups of the drink, an athlete will increase his strength and endurance by 20% (without disturbing the body’s water balance). You can treat yourself to a third cup of coffee no earlier than two hours after finishing your workout.
Ultimately, the question “is it okay to drink coffee before a workout?” Each person decides for himself. However, it is important to remember: medicine does not recommend loading the body with an excess of caffeine for athletes, and in this case the “3 coffee cups” formula is simply ideal.
Coffee keeps your brain active longer
Research from the University of South Florida and the University of Miami found that people over 65 who consumed more caffeine developed Alzheimer's disease later than those whose caffeine levels were lower.
Dr. Haunghai Cao, a neuroscientist at the University of South Florida, says: “We are not saying that moderate coffee consumption will completely protect people from Alzheimer's disease. However, we are confident that coffee significantly reduces the risk of this disease or at least delays its onset.”
Why coffee is not harmful to health
This vague endorsement simply dims in light of recent research. Not only are most of the negative effects attributed to coffee consumption considered unproven - one of the latest studies suggests there is no connection between coffee consumption and the development of hypertension - quite a large number of experiments speak about this.
There is reason to believe that drinking coffee helps prevent diseases such as Alzheimer's disease or liver recovery. The knowledge we have accumulated goes far beyond small studies or observations on a limited scale. Over the past couple of years, findings have emerged that suggest that coffee is valuable to us for more than just the caffeine it contains, and that we can even go so far as to say that coffee itself is a nutrient.
In December 2012, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a review of the latest discoveries that elevate coffee to the rank of a panacea - a cure for all diseases. Thus, scientists have found that coffee reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes.
“There have been many studies on human metabolism that have shown that caffeine increases blood glucose levels and insulin resistance in the short term,” says Shilpa Bhupathiraju, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Department of Public Health School of Public Health and a lead scientist in the research laboratory.
However, these results do not imply an increased risk of diabetes in the long term. More than 20 years of constant observation and monitoring of all the main factors of life and nutrition of selected patients show that of all these factors, drinking coffee - regardless of caffeine content - leads to an 8% reduction in the risk of type 2 diabetes in women. In men, the reduction was 4% when drinking regular coffee and 7% when drinking decaffeinated coffee.
The findings are considered credible because they are based on data from nurses and health professionals in two long-term studies that spanned from the 1980s to 2008 and included approximately 80,000 women and approximately 40,000 men. Although all of the data in these studies was self-reported, it is safe to say that the data is as reliable as possible because it comes from people who know more about health and disease than the average American does.
Coffee makes you smarter
You usually drink coffee when you need to cheer yourself up, for example, late in the evening when there is a lot to do. It turns out that coffee not only helps you cheer up, but also makes your brain more productive.
Michael Lemonick, a reporter for TIME, argues that during times of forced deprivation, caffeine improves brain function: reducing reaction time, increasing attention, logical thinking and alertness .
PS And coffee is a great reason to treat yourself to delicious desserts.
Chocolate pudding cake
This pudding cake is simply oozing chocolate. Cocoa powder and chocolate chips included in the dessert go well with the rich taste of brewed coffee.
Chocolate bread
If you have some dry bread left over, you can make a light chocolate dessert. The bread is cut into cubes, soaked in melted chocolate and placed in a glass with whipped cream and toasted almond flakes.
Exquisite cake
This elegant dessert features frozen whipped cream with chocolate chips sandwiched between two meringue discs. The final touch is a drizzle of melted chocolate, which contrasts with the frozen cake.
Chocolate espresso cupcakes with cocoa and whipped cream
In this recipe, coffee is added to impart a chocolate flavor. The cupcakes contain sour cream, which gives them extra tenderness, and whipped cream and cocoa beans create a spectacular look.
Chocolate chili mousse
The combination of chocolate and chili is far from new, but it still continues to surprise and excite. Chocolate mousse can be made with red chili powder and instant espresso coffee. Gelatin is added to the mousse to help it harden as it cools.
Sicilian dessert Granita
The Italian Granita is made with frozen leftover coffee and a dollop of sweetened whipping cream. The result is a refreshing and invigorating dessert.
Coffee cake
In this pie, coffee runs through every component - the dough, the filling, and even the sweet icing. The top of the cake is decorated with chopped nuts, and the dessert itself is served with a cup of coffee.
Coffee panna cotta
This smooth Italian dessert is served at dinner parties. Skim milk, vanilla yogurt and a little cream. Top with chocolate and caramel sauce.
Soufflé “Fallen Mocha”
Just five ingredients and a simple dessert is ready. Whipped egg whites for the soufflé, instant espresso coffee for the chocolate flavour, sugar and the finishing touch - a little ice cream.
Vietnamese coffee ice cream with crushed kozinaki
Vietnamese coffee is a combination of strong coffee and condensed milk. A frozen substance with the addition of ice cream mixed with crushed kozinak at the top.
A short excursion into the topic of coffee preparation
It’s worth starting with the basics, by defining what coffee really is. We know that in their original food form these are small brown beans - the fruits of coffee trees, growing in many countries of South and Central America, Africa and Asia. Of the more than 55 species of coffee tree in Russia, the most famous are:
— Arabian coffee (aka “Arabica”).
— Congolese coffee (also known as Robusta).
Few people realize that the health benefits of coffee largely depend on the quality of the working stages of collecting and preparing the beans. In fact, before coffee reaches store shelves, it goes through a long process of growing, harvesting, cleaning and packaging, drying, and then roasting and grinding.
At the ripening stage, the coffee fruits that fall to the ground on their own will be used in the future for the production of expensive varieties of coffee. To produce cheaper varieties, workers themselves, as a rule, pick unripe fruits. The drying stage, as a rule, lasts up to three weeks, during which the fruits are peeled either with special peeling machines or by hand (sometimes using the “wet method”). After the drying stage, the coffee beans are packaged in special jute bags and sent to storage facilities, where they are kept for another year (and some varieties can be stored for 7 to 10 years).
The two most famous coffee varieties
The stage of roasting the beans is also important, a process that in the professional environment of coffee brewers is classified into several degrees:
— Light roasting is called “Scandinavian” — the result is light brown beans, used by coffee lovers in preparing the most delicious and stimulating morning drink.
— Medium roast is called “Viennese” (because it is popular among Austrians, Germans, Dutch, and also among Russians). As a result, the finished product produces beans with a rich chocolate-brown color and a specific, slightly sweet aroma.
— Strong roasting is called “French” — and the result is beans of dark brown colors, alluring with a special bitter aroma.
— Special “Italian” roasting is used to obtain beans with a thick brown-dark, almost black color; a drink made from such beans has a pronounced bitter taste.
This short excursion into the holy of holies of coffee preparation helps to look at the issue of its harm to health from a professional point of view: well, a drink that goes through so many stages of careful selection, storage, and roasting cannot have a negative effect on a person.
Coffee contains pesticides
Today, almost all crops in demand on the market are treated with huge amounts of pesticides. And coffee is no exception. In almost all types of coffee present on our store shelves, a whole “bouquet” of the most dangerous chemical compounds is regularly found. The exception is the so-called “organic coffee”, grown without the use of chemicals. But, as we understand, it is almost impossible to find in regular stores and its price is much higher than that of “chemical” coffee.
When not to drink coffee
A natural drink can have an irritating effect on the gastric mucosa and negatively affect the functioning of the cardiovascular system. Therefore, the main contraindications for drinking coffee, including with additives, are:
- diseases of the digestive system (chronic gastritis, gastric and duodenal ulcers, pancreatitis, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and other pathologies that are accompanied by a violation of the integrity of the mucous membrane);
- diseases of the cardiovascular system (heart failure, arrhythmias, hypertension, coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis).
Tannins contained in coffee have a positive effect on the absorption of vitamins, but can interfere with the absorption of microelements, especially iron. Therefore, people with anemia are not recommended to drink the drink without adding milk, which neutralizes them.
