Coffee lovers, raise your cups, maybe even
your eyebrows, at the latest news in the Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry that coffee contains soluble fiber, the type that can help lower
cholesterol. With about 1 gram per cup, coffee’s fiber impact is modest. But
the report is the latest in a growing stream of positive news about coffee.
Some of the most promising findings come from
studies of diabetes. When Harvard researchers combined data from nine studies
involving more than 193,000 people, they found that regular coffee drinkers had
a significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes than those who abstained and the
more they drank, the lower their risk.
And, despite coffee’s reputation for being
bad for the heart, recent epidemiologic studies haven’t found a connection;
some even suggest coffee can be protective. A study in February’s American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that healthy people 65 and over who
drank four or more cups of caffeinated beverages daily (primarily coffee) had a
53 percent lower risk of heart disease than non-coffee-drinkers.
It’s even more beguiling when you consider
that the immediate effects of drinking coffee tend to go in the opposite
direction, raising heart rate and blood pressure and temporarily making cells
more resistant to insulin. “But those effects are probably short-lived, as
people develop a tolerance,” explains Frank Hu, M.D., Ph.D., associate
professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, who
has studied coffee extensively. “In the long term, beneficial components in
coffee may have stronger, more lasting effects.”
Coffee Is An Antioxidant
How coffee might work isn’t clear; the
studies weren’t designed to identify cause-and-effect relationships.
Antioxidants, such as chlorogenic acid, they are related to polyphenols found in
grapes, are the likely players: coffee has more of them per serving than
blueberries do, making it the top source of antioxidants in our diets.
Antioxidants help quell inflammation, which might explain coffee’s effect in
inflammation-related diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Magnesium in
coffee might help make cells more sensitive to insulin. And caffeine seems to
have its own beneficial effects; the diabetes studies found that those who
drank regular coffee had lower risks of the disease than decaf drinkers.
Caffeinated-coffee drinking has also been linked with reduced risk of Parkinson’s
disease, gallstones, cirrhosis and liver cancer.
The take away from all of this; For healthy
adults, having two or three cups of coffee daily generally isn’t harmful and may
have beneficial health perks.
If you are looking for the perfect citrus for
yourself or as a gift for a business associates, your family or friends? A
quick visit to sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving
adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can
buy.
Presented By:
Sunburst Oranges
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA 93257
559-561-3391
No comments:
Post a Comment