6 Surprising Ways Coffee Can Boost Your Health

Posted on 09/20/21 by Kimberly Goad

Caffeine lovers looking for a healthy way to get their daily fix have long been led to believe that tea offers greater health and wellness benefits. Not anymore. Nutrition experts and medical researchers are finding all kinds of reasons to recommend indulging in that cup of joe, most of them rooted in the fact that coffee is the a potent source of antioxidants.

"Coffee is abundant in bioactive compounds that promote health,” says Kristin Kirkpatrick, a registered dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic. As she explains, research published in The New England Journal of Medicine shows that these compounds may improve the gut microbiome (made up of healthy bacteria that aid in digestion and boost immunity) and reduce what's called oxidative stress, which occurs when free radicals outnumber antioxidants in a way that leads to disease-causing cellular damage in the body. “The beans also have a deep rich hue," Kirkpatrick says,  "and we know that the deeper the color of a plant, the more benefits we can expect for health.” Those benefits, research shows, translate into everything from lowering your risk of diabetes to potentially boosting your brain health.

Moderation, of course, is key. According to dietary guidelines, three to five 8-ounce cups of coffee — or up to 400 mg of caffeine — per day can be part of a healthy diet. But that’s true only for plain black coffee, not cappuccinos, lattes and macchiatos, which are typically high in calories, sugar and fat. Keep in mind that “some medications or health conditions may limit your tolerance to caffeine or its safety profile, so discuss this with your health care provider,” says Jill Weisenberger, a registered dietitian nutritionist and author of Prediabetes: A Complete Guide: Your Lifestyle Reset to Stop Prediabetes and Other Chronic Illnesses.

​Here are six solid health benefits of coffee that give you even more reason to enjoy your next cup (or three).

1. Lowers your risk of type 2 diabetes

This will perk you up, especially if you have prediabetes:

A review of studies published in 2021 in the journal Nutrients found that drinking coffee on a regular basis may help people with prediabetes from progressing to full-blown diabetes. Why? “Coffee is jam-packed with phytochemicals that may act as antioxidants, anti-inflammatory compounds, insulin-sensitivity boosters and more,” Weisenberger says. Same goes for decaffeinated brews, “though the concentration [of phytochemicals] may be less compared to regular coffee,” she says. “However, they still add up for people who drink lots of decaf.” 

This article originally appeared on AARP.org in September 2021

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