After all, just in the U.S. alone an estimated 400 million cups are consumed daily so to call yourself a coffee addict may not be too far-fetched.

Besides being a multi-billion dollar industry, coffee is a very actively traded commodity on a global scale. So how we define a coffee habit starts where it grows.The video below is both informative and entertaining but be warned, the narrator talks at warp speed.

Coffee Addiction Socially Accepted

Noteworthy Benefits Coffee Drinking Delivers

Aside from the enticing aroma and the delectable, although acquired taste, coffee offers plenty of good reasons to continue drinking it. Consider some of the more noteworthy of coffee’s many benefits:

• How about a National Institute of Health’s study of some 400,000 participants between 1995 and 2008. Male participants were able to reduce their mortality rate by 6% with just one cup a day and up to 12% with about five cups a day.
• A Japanese study of 76,000 male participants showed a 38% reduction in risk of death from cardiovasular disease by drinking just one or two cups a day.
• Would you be interested in a 65% reduction in Alzheimer’s disease or dementia in later life by drinking three to five cups a day.
• It is noted that long-term coffee drinkers show a reduced risk of Type-2 diabetes.

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It’s common knowledge that the caffeine in coffee revs up your metabolism which is why so many of us start are mornings with a coffee jolt. It helps us get ready for whatever our day holds in store for us.

And anyone on a strict skin care regimen knows that the caffeine in coffee is responsible for treating everything from redness and inflammation, to reducing the appearance of under-eye circles, to even getting rid of cellulite. When incorporating caffeine as a topical solution to your skin care routine, you can achieve evenly toned, smooth skin all over your body. But coffee works to provide benefits from the inside, too!

Living Longer – One of the Health Benefits of Drinking Coffee

Did you know that drinking coffee may help you live longer? A study was done back the National Institute of Health over a 13-year period testing both men and women. The study showed that women, drinking 2 to 3 cups of coffee per day lived an average of 13% longer than women who did not drink coffee and men lived an average of 10% longer.

This study shared the same results whether the coffee was caffeinated or caffeine-free. However, other factors can affect these findings when you factor in those with health issues, who may be overweight or those who smoke.

Health benefits of coffee drinking have also been shown to include lower risk for heart and respiratory diseases, lower risk from dying of diseases like diabetes and even lower risk of injury and falls.

A recent article in the Huffington Post detailed the health benefits of drinking coffee actually lowered the risk for basal cell carcinoma skin cancer. It stated that the caffeine in coffee may prohibit the formation of tumors in skin.

Coffee has a very strong anti-oxidant capacity which is essential for fighting the free radicals known to cause skin tissue damage. It also contains minerals such as magnesium and chromium, which help the body use the hormone insulin, which controls blood sugar (glucose) and aids in preventing Type 2 Diabetes.

Did you know that one of the health benefits of coffee drinking is a lower risk for heart rhythm disturbances (another heart attack and stroke risk factor) in men and women, and a lower risk for strokes in women?

More Hidden Health Benefits of Coffee Drinking

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This is especially true when you spend the money to buy expensive blends and brands because you want to know you’re going to get your money’s worth.

No one enjoys drinking coffee that is too watery, has a bitter flavor or leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. There are a few simple rules to follow so you won’t be dealing with unpleasant outside influences that will impact the flavor of your coffee.

Tips on How To Make Good Coffee In A Coffee Maker

Follow these simple steps for enjoying the perfect cup of coffee in your coffee maker every time.

• How’s Your Tap Water? - You can easily ruin that pot of your morning brew when using water from your tap. Minerals and chlorine can add an unpleasant taste to your coffee making for a less than enjoyable cup. Real coffee connoisseurs use bottled water or have carbon filters or activated-charcoal on their taps to remove any bad tastes. Try smelling a glass of your untreated tap water and see if you notice an odor. If you want to know how to make good coffee in a coffee maker, then start with good water.
• Filter Quality Makes a Difference – If you want to know how to make a good coffee in a coffee maker, check your filters. Cheap paper filters will add a wet paper taste to brewed coffee. Using filters that are labeled “oxygen-bleached” or “dioxin-free” will improve the taste but will cost a little more than the cheap paper filters. If your coffee maker has a gold mesh filter, this will eliminate the paper filters altogether but may result in fine coffee sediment in the bottom of the pot depending on your coffee grind.
• How Hot is Too Hot? - Leaving your coffee to bake in the coffee pot after it’s brewed can result in a bitter overdone flavor. The optimal brewed temperature is 200°F and is usually regulated automatically by most higher-end coffee makers. Reheating coffee, boiling it or allowing it to sit will only result in poor taste and you likely dumping it down the drain after the first few cups. Who wants to waste coffee as expensive as it is today?
• Blast the Buildup - Your coffee maker and the container you keep your coffee in needs to be cleaned from time to time because the oils from coffee grounds will be up. Coffee sediment around your coffee maker’s heating element will burn adding bitter flavor to your fresh brewed coffee. Oils leach from coffee grounds both into your coffee make and your coffee keeper and need to be cleaned with a solution of white vinegar or specialty coffee maker cleaners to remove and dissolve any residue buildup. If you are grinding you own coffee beans, this would apply to your coffee grinder as well.

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Whether your goal is to lose a few pounds or to boost your metabolism or to simply learn ways to increase your energy, you may have a potential friend in green tea.

It’s hard to miss green tea as a topic of discussion on popular doctor shows or in the news.

I’ll bet there’s a lot of people that have never really researched the benefits of green tea, so some of the hidden, less publicized benefits are noted here.

GREEN TEA FOR WEIGHT LOSS

According to researchers, three compounds present in the plant’s leaves – caffeine, catechins, and theanine – account for green tea’s fat-burning properties.

These compounds are thought to stimulate enzymes within the body that process substance within body fat, most notably triglycerides and synthetase. In this way, they help to shrink the body’s fat cells and lower overall body fat while boosting metabolism.

GREEN TEA AND BONE HEALTH

In addition to burning fat, it seems that green tea also helps to build bone density. Those at risk for osteoporosis may stand to benefit from green tea consumption.  It is speculated that catechins found in green tea stop cells that break down bone, or “osteoclasts” in their tracks.

GREEN TEA AND HEART HEALTH

The same catechins that help prevent bone loss may be effective as protectors against coronary artery disease as well. It is thought that the catechins in green tea help to reduce “free radicals”, or reactive molecules with electrons that are unpaired, in the blood.

The presence of these free radicals is a known risk factor for many forms of cardiovascular disease.

In suggesting that green tea may help you lose weight, shore up your bone structure, and make your heart healthier, the real benefit, according to documented medical studies indicates that green tea possesses cancer fighting capabilities.

This includes prostate, lung cancer, and breast cancer due to green tea’s polyphenols. These compounds are believed to induce apoptosis (or cell death) in cancerous cells, but not normal cells.

In looking for a partner in your effort to optimize your health, consider the hidden benefits of green tea.

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But now, with the internet providing access to more information than you can ever take in, I’ve found a number of uses for coffee and coffee grounds that allows me to get “extra mileage” out of my purchase.

Some of these uses may seem a little unorthodox and make you wonder why you even drink the stuff but if it works and is also environmentally responsible, why not go for it?

Here are just a few of the reuse options for coffee and coffee grounds that I found interesting and have actually tried:

1)      Baking soda isn’t the only thing that eliminates refrigerator odor. Next time try dry coffee grounds. Not only does it make your refrigerator smell better, it makes you want to drink another cup. I had actually forgotten about this related tip but when I moved a few years ago from a rental home into a new home I purchased, the movers put a sock with coffee grounds in it into my refrigerator. The guy at the moving company said they do it all the time to keep any odor out of refrigerators and freezers they move. I imaging this would also work well if you needed to move a washer so you wouldn’t get that musty smell.

2)      When I’m cooking, I constantly get garlic and onion smell on my hands that seems to last for days no matter how many times you wash them. I had tried lemon juice and touching stainless steel that are supposed to work on eliminating those odors but I did read that rubbing coffee grounds on your hands works better. I tried it the last time I prepared a meal and you know what?…it did work.

3)      Spring will be here before you know it and used coffee grounds can be a gardener’s best friend. They make a great fertilizer for your plants and also provide a great defense against ants and any unwanted visitors to your garden like the neighborhood cat.

4)      Try using brewed coffee in some of your dishes as that “secret” ingredient. I’m a big fan of my crock pot and use it all the time for making roasts, pork tenderloins, stews and chili. Just about every time I use my crock pot I add about 1 cup of leftover brewed morning coffee to the crock pot. You will be surprised at the depth of flavor it adds to slowly roasting meats and it provides that little extra something to the seasons spicing up my chili.

5)      Used coffee grounds, when combined with a little dish detergent, makes a great natural, mildly acidic cleanser for countertops, sinks and other areas of your kitchen. It smells good while you’re cleaning with it and the grounds get into those areas you’d otherwise move over the top of with a sponge or cloth.

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I sincerely believe what I’m about to tell you is worth writing about and is something we all need to take into consideration.

With the cold and flu season upon us it’s smart to take a minute and think about the compounding affect of caffeine on your cardiac care especially if you have high blood pressure, are overweight or have diabetes.

Combine the effects of caffeinated coffee or tea with that of cold medicine ingredients that increase blood pressure and add to that a pre-existing high blood pressure condition and you’ve got a potential recipe for disaster.

How much is too much caffeine?

An average cup of coffee, depending on the blend and the brand, can be anywhere from 75 to 330 mg of caffeine.  Just one 16 ounce serving of Starbuck’s Pikes Place Blend will get you a whopping 330 mg of caffeine.  Add two pain reliever tablets containing caffeine for cold or flu symptoms at 65 mg per tablet and a decongestant with pseudoephedrine or any of the other blood pressure raising ingredients and you are potentially putting yourself in the “red zone”. If you are overweight or have a health condition like diabetes, you continue to dangerously compound the problem.

I believe most of us don’t take into consideration the combining effect of what we are putting in our bodies.  Until I started doing this research, for another website, I honestly never gave it any thought.

Caffeine side effects

Now I’m certainly not advocating giving up your coffee.  You wouldn’t be on this website if you didn’t enjoy drinking it and I don’t plan on giving it up either. As a baseline, for most healthy adults, caffeine around 200 milligrams a day is usually well tolerated. In excess of that amount, let’s say 500 milligrams in a healthy adult you may feel some or all of the following indications you’ve had too much caffeine.  To top that off, too much caffeine comes with its own withdrawal side affects.

• Muscle tremors
• Racing heartbeat
• Agitated state
• Irritability
• Nervousness
• Restlessness
• Upset stomach

Bottom line, please be aware of how much caffeine you are ingesting especially if you have health issues. Before you reach for that 3rd or 4th cup, take a minute to think about what else may have caffeine in it or reacts with caffeine like some antibiotics, decongestants and even natural remedies like echinacea.

Be safe, be well and be smart about the brew.

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