Fight Heart Disease and Cancer with your Daily Coffee

My grandfather recently had a stroke. He used to be an avid walker, and one of the most active people I knew. Well, not anymore. My family and I have been very worried. In light of restrictions lifting, we were finally able to travel and see him this summer. 

While visiting, there was a moment that brought me back to my childhood, where all the grandkids gathered around the garden table, and Granddad imparted some wisdom.

“Strokes are hereditary”, he stated. He then went on to tell us how we should cut out salt and saturated fat from our diet. I’m not going to lie, this shook me a bit, and I spent a bit of time worrying about diet and health afterwards.

Then, out of the blue, this article from CNN came up on my news feed. It talks about new research that demonstrates how drinking plain, caffeinated coffee reduces risk of heart disease and stroke. 

Statistically speaking, drinking black coffee is actually one of the best things we can do in the fight against age related diseases. Coffee is never given its proper due in health discussions. If anything, it is shunned by health gurus, and the latest health trend seems to be cutting down on coffee, or cutting it out completely. We should be doing the opposite. 

The health benefits of caffeinated coffee is one of the most researched and corroborated topics in modern scientific literature. This great article from Coffee Brewing Methods goes through some of the main health benefits of coffee and why including it in your diet is a great idea. 

Yes, caffeine in excess can be harmful to us. Firstly, this is true of anything healthy. Try exercising without stopping and see what happens. Secondly, it is extremely difficult to overdose from caffeine in coffee. There is only 50-100mg of caffeine per standard cup of coffee. The FDA assures us that it is completely safe for humans to consume at least 400mg of caffeine per day. This would equal more than 6-8 cups of coffee. 

I’m not necessarily suggesting you drink 8 cups of coffee per day. Apart from anything else, lots of people have a caffeine sensitivity and experience negative side effects, such as nervousness or jitters, when they drink lots of coffee. We should all know our limits and stop doing anything once we start to experience side effects from it. 

Having said this, drinking up to 1-3 cups of good quality, plain, caffeinated coffee is a fantastic practice that we can all undertake if we are worried about our health. This is especially poignant for me after the talk with my Grandpa. From now on, I am going to make sure to always include my daily dose of coffee in a healthy balanced diet in order to best protect myself against age related diseases, and I think everyone else should too!