It’s a good thing coffee is legal, because if it wasn’t I’d have a hard time getting up in the morning!  Ok, that’s not completely true, in fact I’m a morning person and I routinely get up well before my alarm clock goes off.  But I definitely DO look forward to my morning coffee and for good reason.

Your morning cup of coffee offers more than just a boost of energy for the day.  It offers numerous health benefits that you’re probably not even aware of.  Which is why I want share with you, the top 10 health benefits of drinking coffee.

1. Increases energy and focus.  One of the most common benefit of drinking coffee is the energy boost you get from caffeine in the morning.  But in addition, there’s another benefit that comes along with increased energy, and that’s improved focus.  There is a chemical reaction that occurs in your brain that enhances your neurons to be more active, which in turn helps improve your reaction time, enhance your mood, improve your memory and cognitive functions.

2. Decreases your stress level.  Although it may seem a little odd, smelling the aroma of coffee has been shown to lower stress levels.  At Seoul National University, researchers found that rats who were stressed because of sleep deprivation experienced changes in their brain when they smelled coffee.  The smell of coffee, affects proteins that are associated with higher stress to help lower stress levels.

3. Lowers the risk of diabetes.  Researchers found that people who drink coffee regularly are 23 - 50% less likely to get Type 2 diabetes compared with people who don’t drink coffee.  One reason may be that coffee contains high amounts of anti-oxidants which help fight cell damaging free radicals in the body.

4. Increases fat loss.  Caffeine in coffee helps you burn fat more effectively through several different processes.  First, caffeine stimulates your nervous system, which then sends a signal to break down your body fat and use it for fuel.  Second, caffeine increases the production of hormone epinephrine (a catecholamine) which is a potent fat burning hormone.  Third, caffeine helps boost your metabolism which increases the number of calories your body burns from fat.  These are the main reasons why most commercial weight loss supplements contain caffeine as their active ingredient.  So next time you’re contemplating taking a weight loss supplements, which may have other harmful ingredients, you can drink a cup of coffee instead.  This way you can get all the weight loss benefits without any of the potentially dangerous side effects.

5. Natural remedy for depression.  Coffee has shown to help to boost your mood and chase away the blues.  At Harvard University, researchers found that women who consumed a minimum of 2 - 4 cups of coffee per day experienced a 20% reduced risk of being depressed.  And they also found that it reduced the risk of suicide in both men and women by 50%.  Researchers think that the caffeine in coffee acts as a mild anti-depressant by increasing the productions of chemicals in your brain that improve your mood like serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline.

6. Prevention of Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.  Although additional research needs to be completed to understand the reasons why, but at this point researchers have found that coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

7. Protects your liver health.  Drinking coffee can protect your liver, especially for if you drink excessive amounts of alcohol.  Over consuming alcohol can lead to liver disease, but the risks can be lowered by drinking coffee.  A research study found that people who drank excessive amounts of alcohol, who drank a minimum of one cup of coffee daily experienced lower rates of liver disease compared with excessive drinkers who didn’t drink the coffee.

8. Improves physical performance.  Drinking coffee helps enhance physical performance.  The biggest boost comes from caffeine in the coffee which increases adrenaline production.  This essentially stimulates the “fight or flight” response making you better prepared for any physical activity.  Caffeine has also shown to help increase your muscle power by releasing calcium that’s stored in your muscle.  This enables your body to keep going longer and faster.  Lastly, caffeine can affect your brain’s perception of exhaustion.  This can help you go longer and often help you exceed your normal capacity.  It is estimated that coffee can improve your physical performance by approximately 11 - 12%.

9. Cancer prevention.  Studies have shown that drinking coffee regularly, is especially beneficial for colon and liver cancer.  Drinking 4 or 5 cups of coffee each day may result in a 15% reduction in colon cancer risk, and a 40% reduction in liver cancer risk. It has also shown to be beneficial for preventing skin cancer in women.

10. High antioxidants levels.  Antioxidants are plentiful in coffee, which might be one of the biggest benefits of drinking it.  Massive amount of antioxidants can be beneficial in protecting your body from free radicals that are very damaging to your body.  In fact, some researchers have suggested that coffee contains more antioxidants than most fruits and vegetables.

Personally, I haven’t met very many people that don’t like coffee, but if coffee is not your thing, no big deal there are many other ways to achieve the same health benefits from eating other anti-oxidant rich foods. However, if you’ve been avoiding consuming coffee, because you thought it wasn’t good for you, now you know that differently and I’ve given you 10 great reasons to start drinking coffee again.