Is Coffee good for you?
Is Coffee good for you? Coffee is consumed daily by many people and is therefore extremely popular. Because coffee is drunk so much, it is important to know how healthy it really is. According to the Netherlands Nutrition Center, coffee is part of a healthy diet. This is a black variant without sugar. If you drink a lot of coffee with sugar in a day, this is of course many times unhealthier than if you drink coffee without sugar.
The main positive effect of coffee is that drinking it ensures that you get a better concentration and that you become more alert. This is caused by caffeine. In addition to these effects, drinking 2 to 4 cups a day lowers the risk of heart disease by up to 10%, and drinking as much as 5 cups would reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by up to 30%. This is caused by the antioxidants it contains. Coffee also helps to recover from an infection or a cold and also reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and liver disorders.
Cafestol and caffeine in coffee
Drinking coffee does not only have positive effects on your health. It contains the substance cafestol, a substance that increases cholesterol in your blood. High cholesterol in your blood causes excess cholesterol to stick to the lining of your blood vessels. This narrows the blood vessels and increases the risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Not all types of coffee contain the same amount of cafestol. Well-filtered coffee, in particular, contains much less cafestol than, for example, coffee made from fresh coffee beans.
Besides cafestol, coffee also contains caffeine, a substance that causes many effects. How much caffeine it contains depends on, among other things, the type of coffee beans, the strength and the size of the cup. Caffeine can have adverse effects if you consume too much of it. You can then suffer from restlessness, anxiety, sleeping problems or headaches. If you drink a lot of coffee for a long time and suddenly stop, you may experience withdrawal symptoms. However, these phenomena are not harmful to your health.
Limit coffee consumption
It is recommended not to drink more than 2 to 3 cups of coffee in a day. This has to do with the amount of cafestol. When you drink coffee that is low in cafestol, it is recommended that you do not drink more than 4 cups in a day, otherwise you would get too much caffeine. Caffeine is in many more products, namely also in tea, chocolate and energy drinks. When you consume these products and also drink more than 4 cups of coffee a day, you get far too much caffeine. In that case, there is a good chance that you will suffer from the adverse effects of caffeine such as: restlessness, sleeping problems or headaches. For young people between the ages of 13 and 18, it is recommended to drink only one cup of coffee a day.
