Let’s be honest, quite a few of us rely on our morning coffees to make us feel alive. A cheeky bit of espresso can take us from feeling like a zombie to a girl boss.
Well, it turns out that life-saving cup of coffee in the morning could give you more than a boost of energy. The Telegraph reported that drinking doses of espresso could reduce the risk of a toxic protein called tau from stumbling together in cells in a pitri dish, according to a study from the University of Verona.
This is significant as the slow growth of tau in the brain is one of the factors of Alzheimer’s disease. There are several benefits to drinking coffee and Dr Federica Amati, a medical scientist and nutritionist at Imperial College London has been looking at these benefits for several years.
A popular 15 year-study of more than 500,000 participants (known as the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (Epic) and ( found that coffee drinkers were less likely to develop a series of chronic illnesses.
“Data keep coming out which show that coffee drinking is protective for health,” Dr Amati adds.
But, if you like adding sugar to your coffee, you might not receive these effects as the coffee loses its beneficial effects as soon as you add sugar to your caffeinated drink. Dr Amati says that “some studies also suggest that espresso drinking is the best.”
So, how much coffee should you be drinking? People who guzzle three to four cups of coffee a day benefit most from the hot drink’s health benefits.
A study from 2017 analysed evidence from over 200 studies and found that drinking three to four cups of coffee a day was associated with a lower risk of early death and getting heart disease compared with drinking none at all.
The study highlighted that coffee was associated with a lower risk of several cancers, including prostate, endometrial, skin, and liver cancer, as well as type 2 diabetes, gallstones, and gout.
The greatest benefit was seen for liver conditions, such as cirrhosis of the liver.
There also seemed to be beneficial associations between coffee consumption and Parkinson’s disease, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease.
But, they warned that pregnant women and those at risk of fracture (such as postmenopausal women) are excluded from the findings. Among these groups, they said coffee could be harmful.
Additionally, Dr. Ally Jaffee, NHS doctor and co-founder of Nutritank. explains that “it is important to remember that UK guidelines are that no more than about two and a half cups of coffee are consumed in one sitting, or five cups per day.”
Excuse us while we stick the kettle on...