Seven surprising health benefits of drinking coffee – including warding off a deadly condition

Drinking a cup of coffee is a well-known way to boost your energy levels at the start of the day.

But the caffeinated concoction also has a range of surprising health benefits.

According to experts, it is good for your heart and even reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Here, MailOnline reveals seven potential health benefits of drinking coffee.

Lowers the risk of depression

In addition to waking you up in the morning, coffee may also make you happier, research suggests.

In fact, drinking at least four cups of coffee a day has been linked to a lower risk of depression, compared to drinking just one.

So says a Spaniard study of 14,413 university graduates in 2018.

Researchers at the National Coffee Association believe that one of the reasons coffee may lower our risk of depression is that caffeine blocks mood-depressing chemicals in the brain.

Just as caffeine keeps you from falling asleep, the stimulant also blocks receptors in the brain that bind to adenosine, a chemical that causes not only fatigue but also a depressed mood.

Supports liver health

Coffee can keep your liver healthy and protect the organ from disease.

New research suggests a link between coffee consumption and the risk of developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease – a range of liver diseases that can lead to fibrosis, cirrhosis and cancer.

The 2023 study by the University of Coimbra in Portugal, supported by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee, surveyed 156 middle-aged participants with borderline obesity, most of whom had type 2 diabetes.

It turned out that those who drank more coffee had healthier livers.

But it’s not just the caffeine.

Both decaffeinated and caffeinated beans had this positive effect on the liver.

While those who drank regular coffee were less likely to have liver fibrosis, consuming higher levels of deaf coffee was significantly associated with reduced fatty liver disease.

However, there may be other factors at play.

It helps you lose weight

Your morning fix can help you maintain a healthy weight.

Researchers say this could be because your morning brew boosts your metabolic rate — the number of calories your body uses in a day — and burns fat.

Just 100 mg of caffeine, about the amount in your average cup of coffee, was found to increase the resting metabolic rate of participants in a 1989 study.

The study of King’s College London, found that participants’ energy expenditure increased by about 10 percent when given 100 mg of caffeine every 2 hours throughout the day.

Because of these findings, researchers have speculated that caffeine could aid weight loss in the treatment of obesity, but more research is needed.

A more recent one study found in 2004 that drinking coffee doubled the amount of fat burned and increased energy expenditure by 13 percent.

But the research was supported by coffee producer Nestle.

Another US study published in The Journal of Nutrition in 2020, suggests that women who drink more coffee have less body fat.

It’s good for your heart

Drinking too much caffeine can strain your heart and make you jittery.

But in moderate amounts, coffee has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

In fact, drinking three to five cups of coffee a day could be the perfect amount to keep your heart healthy.

Drinking three cups a day could reduce your risk of hypertension, cardiovascular disease and atrial fibrillation, according to an Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC) rating in 2022.

“Drinking moderate amounts of coffee is associated not only with a lower risk of heart disease, but also with a longer life,” says Professor Kjeld Hermansen, Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University and ISIC coffee expert.

Professor Hermansen told MailOnline: ‘These trends apply to people with and without cardiovascular disease. Coffee beans have over 100 biologically active compounds.

‘These substances can help reduce oxidative stress and inflammation and improve insulin sensitivity and metabolism. However, the exact mechanisms of action related to CVD are still not elucidated.’

Aids athletic performance

Coffee not only wakes you up in the morning, it can also help you in the gym.

Drinking caffeine has been shown to improve endurance, as well as high-intensity and resistance exercise, according to experts.

The brew can also aid your athletic performance in sports such as tennis and football, says Dr Neil Clarke, a lecturer in sports and exercise nutrition at Coventry University and an ISIC expert.

He told MailOnline: ‘Cognitive function, including attention and wakefulness, has also been shown to improve after taking caffeine.

“These beneficial effects are generally independent of exercise status, habitual caffeine intake and sex.”

But he also believes that just drinking coffee is better than getting a caffeine fix from powder or tablets.

He said: ‘There is growing evidence that coffee is an equally effective alternative to caffeine powder or tablets for improving exercise performance.’

It’s good for your brain

According to researchers, drinking coffee reduces the risk of getting Alzheimer’s.

A 2016 judgement of 11 observational studies in more than 29,000 people found that the more coffee people consumed, the lower their risk of the memory-robbing condition.

But the researchers stressed that more studies are needed to find the reason for this link.

In addition, studies also suggest that coffee reduces the risk of developing Parkinson’s.

Another judgement of 13 studies, published in Nutrients in 2020, suggested that caffeine consumption slowed the progression of this neurological condition.

According to Professor Giuseppe Grosso, from the Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences at the University of Catania and ISIC expert, coffee could be beneficial to the brain due to its anti-neuro-inflammatory effects.

Professor Grosso told MailOnline: ‘There is some evidence that coffee polyphenols can cross the blood-brain barrier, exert anti-neuro-inflammatory effects and even promote neurogenesis, resulting in a reduced risk of both cognitive and affective disorders.’

Reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes

A recent study found that caffeine can not only prevent you from getting fat, but it can also reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The study, published in the journal BMJ Medicine, looked at genes that determine how quickly people process caffeine to estimate the likely caffeine levels of nearly 800,000 people throughout their lives.

Researchers found that those who broke down caffeine more slowly, so likely had higher levels of it in their blood, had a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

However, half of people’s reduced risk of type 2 diabetes can be explained by their lower BMI.

That’s because being thinner reduces your risk of developing the condition, which affects one in 10 people over the age of 40.

But drinking black coffee is more likely to reduce the risk of the disease than drinking sugary coffee with syrups.

Dr. Dipender Gill, senior author of the study, from Imperial College London, said: ‘These results suggest that caffeine may be linked to a lower body mass index, lower body fat and a reduced chance of developing type 2 diabetes.

“It can improve people’s metabolism, although it doesn’t mean people have to start drinking a lot of high-calorie caffeinated drinks like chai lattes.”

“If more evidence emerges from larger studies in the future, it could suggest that people should consider drinking espressos or black coffee to reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes.”