How to get health benefits of coffee?

Health benefits of coffee

Coffee is associated with many of the same health benefits that sleep is associated with, but coffee is supposed to hurt your sleep. How do you explain these two opposing facts? 

It is clear that coffee drinking is good for health. Study after study, the data is immensely compelling for the health benefits associated with coffee.

However the most noteworthy thing to remember is that these health benefits have got nothing to do with caffeine. It is the antioxidants in coffee that are responsible for health benefits. 

Coffee contains very high dose of antioxidants. Some people get the majority of their antioxidants only by way of drinking coffee.

Decaffeinated coffee gives similar health benefits. Therefore, the bottom line here is – the dose and the timing of drinking coffee, make coffee the poison. 

Recommendation: Try to limit intake to two cups of coffee. Three cups of coffee should be the maximum limit. It has been observed that, health benefits are maximum with two to three cups of coffee and benefits decrease after that.

Decaffeinated coffee

Another way to get all the health benefits of coffee is to drink decaffeinated coffee. You will get the aroma and the taste of coffee, but without any bad effects of coffee.

Try to complete your coffee intake before noon. If you still want to take coffee after the noon time, drink decaffeinated coffee. Decaffeinated coffee is made from regular coffee beans that go through a process to remove the majority of the caffeine. De caffeination removes about 97% or more of the caffeine in coffee beans.

Black Coffee Vs Coffee with milk

It has been observed that coffee drinkers live longer than non-coffee drinkers. This may be because of the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, due to the presence of Polyphenol Phytonutrients found in coffee beans called Chlorogenic acids.

I would rather suffer with coffee than be senseless.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Which coffee to consume – light, medium or dark roast?

If the coffee beans are roasted too much, the beneficial chemical (Chlorogenic acid) becomes extremely low in coffee beans – about 10 times lower than the mildly roasted coffee.

Caffeine content remains stable on roasting coffee beans, but a dark roast reduces the beneficial chemical – Chlorogenic acid content of the beans by nearly 90%.

Should coffee be consumed black or without milk?

Milk blocks the benefits of coffee. Adding milk to the coffee also has an effect on the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of coffee.

Casein – which is a milk protein, binds to the coffee Phytonutrients. Therefore, when milk is added to coffee, the antioxidant activity decreased by more than half with just a teaspoonful of milk.

In latte which is coffee with plenty of milk, the antioxidant activity is down by nearly 90%.

Soy milk or coconut milk does not have the nutrient-blocking effects. There is no significant difference in the absorption of coffee phytonutrients between drinking coffee black or with soy milk. 

Conclusion: If you want to enjoy the maximum benefit of coffee, drink mild to medium roast coffee and drink it black, without milk.

How does caffeine in coffee affect sleep?

Caffeine in coffee, affects the sleep adversely but the antioxidants in coffee have a positive effect on the body. Caffeine adversely affects sleep in at least 3 ways:

Long duration of its action: 

Caffeine can persist in your body for somewhere between 10 to 12 hours. If you have a cup of coffee at noon, some of the caffeine from coffee is still in your brain at midnight.

This means, having a cup of coffee at noon is almost the equivalent of a quarter of a cup of coffee at night.

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Caffeine is a stimulant:

Caffeine can make you more alert and more awake. How does it do that?

There is a sleep chemical in the blood, known as Adenosine. It attaches to adenosine receptors in the brain and produces sleep. Caffeine forces Adenosine away from those receptors, and attaches to these receptors, and inactivates the effect of Adenosine. 

Suppose you are sleepy at 10 PM and you have an espresso coffee. Caffeine, latches onto the adenosine receptors and blocks the signal of adenosine. Caffeine mutes the signal of sleep and feeling of sleepiness disappears. 

However, adenosine, your body’s natural sleep chemical is still there in your system and its concentration continues to grow. When the caffeine finally gets out of your system, now you get the sleepiness that you had before caffeine, plus sleepiness due to adenosine that’s been increasing when the caffeine was active. You get a huge wave of sleepiness and that is called the caffeine crash. 

Caffeine blocks deep sleep 

How does coffee affect our deep sleep?

A cup and a half of good strong coffee will reduce your deep sleep by about somewhere between 15 to 30 percent.

Some people often say – I can have two cups of coffee with dinner and I fall asleep and I stay asleep. But they are not aware of the lack of the deep sleep, that they are not getting because of the caffeine. When they wake up the next morning, they reach for 2-3 cups of coffee, rather than the usual 1 cup of coffee, as they don’t feel refreshed and restored by sleep. This is because caffeine reduced the amount of deep sleep. 

Deep sleep is critical for regulating the cardiovascular system, to rejuvenate the immune system, to regulate the hormones such as insulin.

Dysregulation of insulin, is the reason for blood sugar rise, when you get disturbed sleep. Deep sleep is also the time when we cleanse the brain of toxins that are related to Alzheimer’s disease.

Note: This information is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute providing medical opinion.

About the Author

Dr. Ashok Birbal Jain, MD is an eminent Physician of Wardha, India, with four decades of active practice. He graduated from MGIMS, Sewagram, Maharashtra. His research study during M.D. was on Heart-Lung problems. He is the Executive Director of Center for Diabetes Heart & Asthma Care (CDHAC)

Along with his spouse Dr. Aruna A Birbal Jain, an eminent Pathologist, he has authored many books. Their books reflect their vast experience in early detection and managing various health problems.

He is a voracious reader and has vast knowledge. Dr. Ashok has a strong hold on holistic sciences of Homeopathy, Yoga, Ayurveda and Reiki also.

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