From turmeric lattes to bullet coffee and not forgetting the latest bean craze – mushroom coffee, it’s fair to say we’re a nation of caffeine fans. And now Get Nourished tells us how our favourite drink could boost your health in more ways than one…
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1. It helps to keep us alert – but only if you drink it mid-morning You may think waking up to a coffee with breakfast is the only thing to perk you up on a dark morning. But experts have found that it might actually be best to wait until 9.30am to drink your first coffee of the day. The reason behind this is the stress hormone cortisol. This peaks when you wake up which is your body’s natural way of keeping you energised. Research suggests that if you drink coffee during this time, the energy-boosting effects will be a lot weaker than if you wait until your cortisol levels drop mid-morning. To get your most energy out of your coffee breaks, best to schedule them according to the dips in cortisol, so that should be around 9.30am-11.30pm and 1.30-5pm
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2. It may help us to melt away fat Coffee is thought to have properties that may genuinely help us to lose those pesky pounds. New research from North Western University revealed that coffee acts in the opposite way to cannabis, using the same system in the body. The munchies is when people who smoke cannabis suddenly crave food because the drug hits part of the brain linked to appetite. Results of the coffee study found that rather than increasing one’s appetite like cannabis might, it may actually make people less hungry, and therefore aid weight-loss.
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3. Its effective at soothing pain In some cases, caffeine may be more effective than pain relief drugs like ibuprofen and even morphine. A 2017 study found that coffee can aid those suffering from pain when the person is sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation increases a person’s sensitivity to pain, but caffeine can help tackles this because it boosts the dopamine in the body, which is the brain’s pleasure chemical.
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4. It can optimise our workouts It’s thought that drinking coffee before a workout can help to energise you. But a study found that slurping coffee right before a workout may not only boost performance but increase the amount of calories burned. Scientists gave athletes 400 mg of caffeine (equivalent of four cups of coffee) before a workout, which found the athletes burned more calories during the workout. However, heed caution here, as up to 400mg of caffeine per day is understood to be the safe limit for an adult.
