Drink Coffee | Episode 11 | One Simple Thing | Optimists Wellness

00:00:00 – 00:04:14

We are all mortal who wants to improve our health and well-being with simple things without any hassle, but what is the right advice? Is it a morning walk? Or have regular cold showers to boost your immune system? Or think stronger about yourself? Welcome to the Optimists podcast, I’m Dr. Priyanka, and this is “One Simple Thing.” Here you will learn just one thing to improve your health in ways you might not expect. 

You can drink something that can increase your alertness, improve your mood, and boost your morning workout. Drink a cup of freshly brewed coffee. 

As most people know, coffee contains caffeine, a powerful stimulant produced by plants, but coffee is also rich in polyphenols, which are antioxidants that have powerful anti-inflammatory effects. Surprisingly, drinking coffee doesn’t just perk us up mentally; it has been shown to boost our performance and endurance to keep us going longer. 

Do you really want to add caffeine to your morning workout? How much should you be consuming and when? 

The coffee plants have their origins in Ethiopia, but today, coffee is the second most popular drink worldwide, after water. Some people even call it “rocket fuel,” by enjoying the stimulating effects of the caffeine in coffee. But coffee beans don’t just have caffeine; they also contain flavanols and antioxidants called polyphenols, compounds thought to promote better heart health and have powerful anti-inflammatory effects. 

Coffee can operate a multitude of benefits; one of the biggest studies involving five lakh people has found that 3 cups of coffee a day is linked with better brain and heart health. Specifically, those who consume that amount, have a low risk of stroke, heart disease, and dementia. The study also demonstrated that compared to non-coffee drinkers, daily consumers have healthier-sized and better-functioning hearts. 

When it comes to short-term studies, a cup of coffee has been shown to have powerful effects on our brains. In one study, a single dose of caffeine, which was actually less than a cup of coffee, clearly enhanced alertness, attention, contentment, and mood. And even better, drinking one cup of coffee every four hours has been shown to improve mood in the course of the day. 

Coffee lovers will also be delighted to know that their favorite drink might even help burn calories. A recent study showed that drinking coffee stimulates brown fat, and one of the main functions of brown fat is to generate body heat by burning calories. Other recent research showed that women who drank 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day had less total body fat and abdominal fat than those who didn’t drink any. But pregnant women should probably drink less as per your doctor’s advice. 

On the downside, caffeine can also raise your blood pressure and disrupt your sleep, and like many other drugs, it might urge you to drink more and more. So, for this reason, it’s sensible to know how much coffee to drink per day. 3 to 4 cups of coffee a day might be the sweet spot to get the most beneficial effects on your health. 

You don’t have to go for any fancy espresso; you get the same benefits from instant coffee. So feel free about drinking whatever you like. 

That’s one thing to include in your daily routine for improving your body and life. Join me next time on “One simple thing” for a better tomorrow.