7 Good Reasons To Drink Coffee

Do you have a caffeine-hater in your life? You know the type – they’re always telling you what’s bad for your health. Here’s a list of some good reasons to drink coffee. Memorize this list – so the next time you encounter your favorite coffee-hater you can pull out one of these babies. While you’re at it you can add the words “from a peer-reviewed scientific journal” — that’ll really get your pet coffee-hater frothing at the mouth.

1. Cut the Pain
Two cups of coffee can cut post-workout muscle pain by up to 48%. From the Journal of Pain, March 2007 .

2. Increase your fiber intake
A cup of brewed coffee represents a contribution of up to 1.8 grams of fiber of the recommended intake of 20-38 grams. From the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry .

3. Protection against cirrhosis of the liver
Of course you could just cut down on the alcohol intake. From the Archives of Internal Medicine.

4. Lowered risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Those who consumed 6 or more cups per day had a 22% lower risk of diabetes. From the Archives of Internal Medicine .

5. Lowered risk of Alzheimer’s disease
There is considerable evidence that caffeine may protect against Alzheimer’s disease. From the European Journal of Neurology.

6. Reduces suicide risk
10 year study of 86,000 female nurses show a reduced risk of suicide in the coffee drinkers. From the Archives of Internal Medicine.

7. Protection against Parkinson’s
People with Parkinson’s disease are less likely to be smokers and coffee drinkers than their healthy siblings. Just make sure you don’t get lung cancer on the way. From the Archives of Neurology.

Recent research has also shown that coffee may boost a woman’s sex drive. The fact that it’s only been tested on rats somehow takes the shine off. UPDATE: Yet another reason: Risk for developing gout (in men) decreases with increasing coffee consumption. This is a large study of over 50,000 men (link). UPDATE: Coffee protects against eyelid spasm (can lead to blindness).

Special thanks to Energy Fiend for this post on April 30, 2007