As a provider of office coffee service since 1995 we feel coffee is probably the best beverage on the planet (after water).

Coffee has spent years playing the role of the villain.  “Oh, it’s so awful,” so many used to proclaim. “It raises your blood pressure, stains your teeth, and causes acid reflux disease!” But is it true? Is coffee really all that bad for you?

Too tasty to be good for you?

The truth is that coffee only raises your blood pressure by four points on average.   If your blood pressure is 90/130 when you don’t drink coffee, if you do drink coffee it would rise to 94/134.  This is essentially insignificant unless your blood pressure is already dangerously high such as 130/180, or worse.

There is more good news… If you drink coffee on a regular basis your body acclimates to the additional stimulation and reverts back to its normal level.

Acid reflux disease

If you’re one of those unlucky and rare people who get acid reflux from drinking coffee, you have two choices. 1) You can switch to decaffeinated coffee which provides most of the same benefits except for the improved mental alertness, focus, and enhanced decision-making; or 2) you can switch to dark roast coffee instead of the light roast, which has protective effects that help to prevent acid reflux.  And who doesn’t love a good French Roast?

The truth about coffee

There has been so much research about coffee over the last few years that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued its 2015 guidelines which now recommend 3 to 5 cups of coffee per day to enhance overall health and reduce disease risk.  Here is what research has taught us:

  1. Coffee is the reigning champ as the highest common source of antioxidants for most adults, easily surpassing all the fruits and vegetables you eat in a given day.  This controls the unavoidable by-products (free-radicals) of our bodies as they produce the energy we need to live!
  2. It increases your rate of metabolism by up to 11% so you feel more energetic.
  3. Two large studies, lasting almost a quarter of a century, showed the death risk in that timeframe was reduced between 20 and 26% based on coffee drinkers vs. non-coffee drinkers.
  4. It is a primary treatment for both migraine and conventional headaches.  Most people seem to know that if you get a headache a cup of coffee will help.
  5. Strong black coffee prevents cavities by killing the bacteria on teeth which eat away at the enamel.  In point of fact, coffee drinkers also obtain protection against periodontal disease from their favorite beverage.
  6. One of the antioxidants, chlorogenic acid (CLA), has also been tied directly to preventing retinal damage, so our eyes last longer and work better.
  7. It increases fat burning capability by 10% in overweight people and up to 30% in lean individuals.
  8. Just the smell of coffee reduces our stress levels.
  9. It provides up to a 20% decreased risk of having a stroke and does not increase the risk of heart disease, and in women, it may reduce the risk, in fact.  On the plus side, if you do have a heart attack, and if you drink more than 2 cups of coffee per day on a regular basis, you have a significantly better chance of surviving.
  10. Men apparently have an exclusive benefit, too.  In a 12-year study of 46,000 men, there was a significant protective effect (27%) against gout when 4 or more cups of coffee (900 ml) were consumed daily.
  11. Ingredients (per cup) include 11% of your Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of vitamin B2,  6% of your B5, and four more essential nutrients including vitamin B3, potassium, manganese, and magnesium—but don’t overlook the fact that each cup also provides 1.8 g of fiber, which is more than 6% of your daily requirement.  Those numbers really start to add up as you drink your second, third and fourth coffee of the day!
  12. Reduces symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, and offers a decreased susceptibility to actually getting it by up to 60%.
  13. Coffee also protects your liver from cirrhosis (healthy tissue is replaced by scar tissue) with up to 80% reduced susceptibility.
  14. It strengthens your body’s DNA strands according to the European Journal of Nutrition showing that white blood cells’ DNA was far less subject to spontaneous DNA strand breakage.
  15. Coffee improves your mood with a 20% increased chance of avoiding depression.
  16. It also reduces suicide risk by more than 50%.
  17. Coffee helps resist skin cancer, such as melanoma, and helps resist liver cancer (40%) and colorectal cancer (15%).
  18. In tests, a cup of black coffee, without the cream and sugar, significantly increased athletic performance, decreasing the total time of a 1,500 meter run by over 4 seconds.  Participants also found that they experienced less muscle pain during their workout than those that did not have any coffee.  Two cups of coffee, post-workout, serve to decrease pain by as much as 48%.
  19. It protects against Type 2 diabetes—7% decrease per cup, per day (14% for two cups; 21% for 3, etc.), and decreases the risk of death from the disease by up to 30%.
  20. Coffee helps your brain resist the onset of Dementia/Alzheimer’s disease with a 65% lower susceptibility (slightly less with decaf since caffeine is known to play a small role, too).
  21. The Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, & Psychiatry has concluded that if you have at least 900 ml of coffee per day it can significantly lower your risk (up to 30%) for Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and can even help to prevent recurrence by way of calming the neural inflammation which causes the disease.

The Takeaway

Coffee may not represent the answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, but it has clearly been shown to be far more beneficial than not having it.  Once the government climbs on the bandwagon, after years of reluctance, you can be reasonably sure that they have it figured out (finally).

Call us now to make the switch to offering an amazing office coffee service experience. Our local Denver and Colorado Springs office coffee distribution specialists are available now to schedule an in-office consultation.

Call (719) 573-7070

Click here to ask a question or schedule a free in-office visit with an office coffee expert.

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