Coffee - The Healthy Beverage - Madam Lichtenstein's Cosmic World

Every so often I read an interesting article about the health benefits of some food or beverage that may not, at first glance, seem especially healthy. So I was surprised and happy to see this Yahoo article called 7 Surprising Health Facts About Coffee?by Amanda Greene Kelly.

Here is a short excerpt of the article:

Coffee serves up plenty of health benefits. Not only can it ward off depression,?it has?been linked with a decreased rate of skin cancer and increased fertility.

1. It may help ward off depression. A study from the Harvard School of Public Health 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.

2. It may help promote a healthy weight. When you drink coffee after a meal, it causes your body to more slowly process the meal you just ate.?But 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. Sperm motility is markedly higher in coffee drinkers versus non coffee-drinkers.

4. It can harbor bacteria.?A study 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. 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? 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.

6. It's not truly 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.

7. It doesn't necessarily cause stomach pain. There is no evidence that coffee causes ulcers. And?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 - heartburn symptoms, since it stimulates the stomach to produce gastric acid.

Source: http://thestarryeye.typepad.com/newage/2012/03/coffee-the-healthy-beverage.html

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