Coffee at its Best

You can have it iced, hot, black, Americano, espresso, cappuccino or add a dozen different flavors of syrup or cream. Perhaps best termed "the cup of Joe of all trades", coffee is brewed into countless flavors and is sipped in practically every culture across the globe. With such great popularity, however, comes many questions and concerns. Is coffee good or bad for us? According to Dr. Eric Jockers, though drinking the popular drink in large amounts poses some risks, the benefits of  coffee are definitely worth considering.

For starters, coffee contains a surprising amount of cancer fighting, anti-inflammatory antioxidants. In fact, the components  found in coffee make it the greatest single source of these cancer fighting substances. Coffee also stimulates brain activity by working with the brain's "pleasure" chemical dopamine and counteracting the "tired" chemical adenosine with caffeine. Coffee promotes thermogenesis (energy put out by the body to perform day to day activities like breathing and eating) and can reduce the risk of heart disease.

Perhaps one of the most interesting benefits of drinking coffee is its ability to lower the risk of depression and Parkinson's disease. Coffee's effective relationship with dopamine and its source of caffeine have shown significant promise in researches and studies looking into these common ailments. Dr. Jockers also mentions that caffeinated coffee is more associated with health benefits than decaffeinated coffee. It's also important to note that regular coffee shows better health benefits than coffee drinks like cappuccinos, mochas etc. These drinks are full of sugars and other unnatural chemicals that are hard for the body to cope with.

But as the saying goes, "you can have too much of a good thing", and coffee is not excluded from that wise phrase. Anxiety, irritability, fatigue, addiction and hypertension are some of the risks that result from drinking too much coffee. Each person is different when it comes to coffee's effect, so I would encourage to drink smart. If you find yourself getting headaches when you go without coffee or notice it affecting your blood pressure, it might be a good idea to take a break from it. So din the end, a couple cups of coffee a day, depending on the person, can be a great benefit to your body.