Coffee and Your Health - Four Important Facts

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Andrew_John_Gallacher]Andrew John Gallacher
Coffee drinking is a favourite pastime all over the world. Whether you enjoy a quick instant Nescafe or grind your own vacuum packed beans and use the latest high-tech espresso maker, drinking coffee brings with it not only a range of flavours and tastes but also a number of benefits to your overall well being and health.
Important Coffee fact number one. The bad news.
The only negative effect of drinking coffee has to do with the intake of larger than usual caffeine amounts. This may temporarily increase the coffee drinker's blood pressure particularly if they already suffered from high blood pressure (hypertension) Apparently there may also be some temporary stiffening of the body's arterial walls. Another negative side effect for people who consume massive amounts of caffeine is a magnesium deficiency. The jitters and over alertness suffered by normally healthy people after a large dose of caffeine is a temporary state and has not been found to have a long term negative effect on health.
Important Coffee fact number two. The good news.
There is a long list of conditions that researchers and scientists have shown to be helped by regular coffee drinking including Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout. Coffee also appears to help reduce the risk of contracting Alzheimer's disease.
Important Coffee fact number three. Antioxidants help fight cancer.
Coffee is known to contain antioxidants, which prevent free radicals in the body from causing cell damage because of the anticancer compound Methylpyridinium. This compound is rarely found in in any other foods. Methylpyridinium is not contained in the raw green coffee bean but develops gradually from Trigonelline, which is the naturally occurring compound, during the roasting process. It occurs independently of the caffeine content of the coffee and is present in both regular and decaffeinated coffee, and is even present to a certain degree in instant coffee.
Important Coffee fact number four. Espresso is the most healthy.
If your favourite java brew is a dark rich espresso made using high pressure steam passed through the finely ground coffee roast then you are getting the highest possible yield of antioxidant from your coffee. Other methods such as brewing, filtering and percolating do produce the beneficial antioxidants but not in such large amounts.
So carry on drinking coffee.
Carry on enjoying your daily espresso, latte or cappuccino. Drinking coffee is good for you and those dark roast beans may even help you live longer. The more scientists look the more benefits they find, and there are many benefits they can all agree on. A freshly brewed cup of coffee not only tastes good, it does you good too.
Andrew John Gallacher is a writer, journalist and photographer. He blogs on freelancing, travel and food and drink. He loves old movies and new ideas, imaging and imagining and learning every day how much he doesn't know. [http://www.coffee-lover-cafe.com/]Coffee is one passion among many.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Coffee-and-Your-Health---Four-Important-Facts&id=6641190] Coffee and Your Health - Four Important Facts