Coffee, oh how we love you, you dark and dreamy elixir of morning pepped-upness. You get us going, you make us chatty, you taste so friggin good, and now you just may be extending our lives.
The latest in wine/chocolate/coffee-is-actually-good-for-you-news suggests that drinking coffee every day could help control your weight (thanks) and the study showed that supplementing a high-fat diet with coffee significantly reversed levels of cholesterol. In fact, daily coffee consumption not only could prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), it could even help reverse it. Granted, we’re talking about a daily habit of six cups of espresso coffee for someone who weighs just shy of 154 pounds, but think of how alert you'd be!
Here are four other reasons why coffee rocks and wants you to stick around:
1. It has been found to help diminish depression in women. NPR states: “A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds women who drank two to three cups of coffee a day reduced their risk of depression by 15 percent, compared to women who consumed only one cup or less per week.” See, that cup of Joe is totally flirting with you and wants you to feel good.
2. It diminishes your risk of stroke. Like by 20 percent! Just one cup per day. Amazing. (Green tea drinkers, this applies to you too.)
3. It can help lower your risk of developing cirrhosis of the liver. One study showed drinking two cups of coffee per day could make your risk drop a whopping 44 percent. Good news for those of you caught in the vicious cycle of “I drank too much wine last night and now I need to wake up.”
4. It actually and generally and basically helps you live longer. This study found “people who drank three to five cups of coffee per day had about a 15 percent lower [risk of premature] mortality compared to people who didn't drink coffee.” Thanks, coffee.
It’s worth noting that we aren’t talking about venti mocha Frappuccinos and pumpkin spice lattes here. Most of these studies use espresso or brewed coffee. Jus’ sayin’.
Check out the best coffee shops in America.