By Amanda Greene Kelly
Whether you like yours hot, iced, black or with sugar, one thing's for sure: Coffee serves up plenty of health benefits. Not only can a cup of Joe help ward off depression, but it has even been linked with a decreased rate of skin cancer and increased fertility. Read on to learn about the unexpected heath benefits of coffee, plus other brew-related facts.
1. It may help ward off depression.
Anyone who perks up after the first sip of morning
coffee will tell you that it has mood-boosting effects.
Now there's proof: A study from the
Harvard
School of Public Health, published last
month in the
Archives of Internal Medicine, found that women who
regularly drink fully caffeinated coffee have a 20%
lower risk of depression than non-coffee drinkers. The
study, which followed a group of women for 10 years,
found that as more coffee was consumed (up to six cups
per day), the likelihood of depression decreased.
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2. It may help promote a healthy weight.
Drinking an espresso or cappuccino after a meal is more
than a relaxing habit. "When you drink coffee after a
meal, it causes your body to more slowly process the
meal you just ate," says
Chris Kilham, medical researcher, founder of
Medicine Hunter, Inc. and author of
Psyche Delicacies. According to David
Levitsky, PhD, professor of nutritional science at
Cornell University, "Caffeine decreases the rate at
which the stomach dumps its contents into the duodenum-a
part of the small intestine where digestion takes
place-and also increases metabolic rate." Keep in mind,
though, that java isn't a miracle brew: Downing it after
dinner won't make the pounds melt away; rather, sipping
a cup post-meal could, in small part, help promote a
healthy weight.
3. It may boost fertility in men.
"Studies have shown that caffeine has a positive effect
on sperm motility-the ability of sperm to move toward an
egg-and could increase your chances of [getting
pregnant]," says John Wilcox, MD, FACOG, managing
partner and reproductive endocrinologist at HRC
Fertility in California. In fact, a study conducted at
the University of Sao Paulo
found that sperm motility was markedly higher
in coffee
drinkers versus non coffee-drinkers. And it turns
out that it doesn't matter whether you drink one or ten
cups a day: The only detectable difference was found
between coffee drinkers and non-coffee drinkers.
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4. It can harbor bacteria.
When you think of the germiest places in your house, you
probably picture the kitchen sink or garbage disposal.
But your coffee machine's reservoir also tops the list.
A study performed by
NSF International, a not-for-profit health and
safety organization, found that the coffee reservoirs
they studied were "loaded with yeast and mold
organisms," says Robert Donofrio, PhD, director of NSF
International's microbiology labs. "Hardly any of the
volunteers we spoke to cleaned or disinfected their
reservoirs. The residual water in that area, plus the
fact that it's a humid part of the machine, contributed
to bacterial growth." To properly clean your coffee
machine, follow the manufacturer's cleaning protocol. If
nothing is specified, clean it once a month by adding
three or four cups of undiluted vinegar to the
reservoir, allowing it to sit for 30 minutes and then
running the vinegar through the unit. Finish by adding
fresh water to the reservoir and running the machine
through two or three cycles to wash away vinegar
residue.
5. It may reduce the risk of
skin
cancer.
Staying out of the sun and regularly applying a liberal
amount of SPF should always be your number one line of
defense against skin cancer.
That said, a
new study out of Brigham and Women's Hospital found
that women who drank more than three cups of coffee a
day had a 20% lower risk for basal cell carcinoma, and
men had a 9% reduced risk. However, the research did not
indicate that coffee consumption reduced the risk of
squamous cell carcinoma or melanoma, the deadliest form
of skin cancer, making it all the more important to
protect your skin when outdoors.
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6. It's not truly addictive.
While many people claim that they can't make it through
the day without a few cups of java,
Liz
Applegate, PhD, faculty member and director of
sports nutrition at the University of California at
Davis, explains that caffeine is not addictive.
"Caffeine is a mild stimulant, and the
World
Health Organization states that it is wrong to
compare caffeine intake to drug addiction, since people
can reduce or eliminate caffeine from their diet without
the serious psychological or physical problems that
result from a true addiction." However, serious coffee
drinkers may experience symptoms such as fatigue and
irritability if they reduce their intake. According to
Dr. Applegate, people who consume 600 milligrams of
caffeine (about six small cups of coffee) daily are most
likely to experience these symptoms, but they will
usually resolve themselves after a few days.
7. It doesn't necessarily cause stomach pain.
If you've ever blamed java for stomach discomfort, you
might want to visit your doctor to see what else could
be at the root of the problem. According to Lauren
Gerson, MD, MSc, associate professor of medicine and
gastroenterology at the
Stanford
University School of Medicine, "There is no
evidence from reviewed studies that coffee causes ulcers
or more pain in patients with documented ulcers." She
also notes that there is no evidence that coffee could
be the cause of stomach pain in patients with
indigestion. However, there is one type of digestive
issue that coffee can aggravate; Dr. Gerson explains
that drinking coffee may worsen heartburn symptoms,
since it stimulates the stomach to produce gastric acid.