Is coffee your go-to morning beverage? Hopefully, you prepare it at home so you can avoid the added sugar in most commercial coffee drinks. If you enjoy a cup of coffee or two, sip it with a clear conscience.
Here’s a fact that might surprise you. It isn’t veggies that supply most of the antioxidants in the American diet. Coffee is the number one source of antioxidants. Coffee contains various bioactive compounds, including a powerful antioxidant called chlorogenic acid. Studies link chlorogenic acid with some of the health benefits of coffee.
You could drink your coffee black, but there are ways to add flavor and increase its health benefits too. Here are seven tips for getting even more health benefits from your next cup of coffee.
Spice Up Your Coffee
How about a hint of spice? Two healthy choices for your morning brew are cinnamon and cloves. These spices add flavor, but also health benefits. For instance, studies show cinnamon modestly improves blood sugar control. It also lowers total cholesterol and blood triglycerides, according to some research. Cinnamon also adds a hint of sweetness, so you need less of another sweetener. Cloves have powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits, so you can’t go wrong with either cinnamon or cloves in your coffee cup.
Don’t Drink It as Soon as You Wake Up
Most people drink their first cup of coffee upon awakening in the morning, but it’s better for your health to wait until you’ve had a healthy breakfast. When you first wake up in the morning, cortisol, a stress hormone, is at its highest level. Downing a few cups of coffee can further raise your cortisol level.
Why is higher cortisol problematic? A high cortisol level can cause a rise in blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar. Eating breakfast will lower your cortisol level. Switch that morning cup of coffee for a glass of water and enjoy coffee after a healthy breakfast.
Add Collagen to Your Coffee
Adding a small scoop of collagen powder (collagen hydrolysate) to your cup of coffee supplies your body with the amino acid glycine, a component your body needs to make collagen. You need collagen for firm, healthy skin and joint health. Collagen makes up most of the protein in joint cartilage and adding collagen to your diet may slow cartilage degeneration and help keep your joints healthy.
Small studies show collagen reduces joint pain in athletes and people with osteoarthritis. If you’re physically active, joint health matters even more. Collagen in your coffee turns your cup of java into a joint-friendly beverage.
Switch Stevia for Sugar
If you like flavored coffee drinks, but don’t want all the sugar, consider a natural sweetener like stevia. Why stevia? It’s a calorie-free sweetener that doesn’t cause a rise in blood sugar. Since it’s 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar, you don’t need a lot to sweeten a cup of coffee. Studies also show Stevia may lower blood pressure.
Some commercial versions of Stevia are combined with sugar alcohols, another group of low-calorie sweeteners. Sugar alcohols are safe, but they can cause bloating, stomach cramping, and flatulence if you consume them in excess. So, don’t overdo it!
Make A Golden Latte
How about taking a break from coffee and enjoying another type of latte called a golden latte? Golden lattes contain the spice turmeric, which explains their golden color. You can make one at home with plant-based milk, like almond milk, and turmeric. You’ll find an abundance of recipes showing you how to do this online. The benefits? Turmeric contains an active compound called curcumin with anti-inflammatory activity.
Filter Your Coffee
Filtered coffee has health benefits, but unfiltered coffee, like Turkish coffee, can raise your cholesterol level. Unfiltered coffee contains cafestol and kahweol, two compounds called diterpenes that can increase cholesterol. The risks are minimal if you only drink one or two cups per day, but if you indulge in more, you may find your cholesterol level rises. You can get the health benefits of coffee and its antioxidants by drinking filtered coffee without the downside of consuming too much cafestol and kahweol.
Add a Pinch of Cacao Powder
How about adding a chocolatey flavor to your next cup of coffee? You can do it with raw cacao powder. Cacao is rich in compounds called flavonoids linked with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Studies also show cacao powder lowers blood pressure and reduces inflammation.
You can get cacao by eating dark chocolate, but raw cacao is less processed and doesn’t contain the sugar that a dark chocolate bar does. So, a healthier way to get your cacao flavonoids is to add cacao powder to your next cup of coffee. Enjoy the chocolatey flavor too!
The Bottom Line
Now you have some new ways to add health benefits to your cup of Joe. Also, stay away from sugar, artificial sweeteners, and coffee syrups that contain sugar and artificial sweeteners. Some studies suggest artificial sweeteners alter the composition of the gut bugs that live in your intestines. Make your coffee at home, so you control how it’s made and what you add to it.
References:
- “Stevia Sweetener Lowers Blood Pressure – People’s Pharmacy.” 08 Sept. 2014, .peoplespharmacy.com/articles/stevia-sweetene.
- “Researchers unravel how stevia controls blood sugar levels ….” 11 Apr. 2017, sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170411104441.htm.
- Cocoa and Cardiovascular Health. Roberto Corti, Andreas J. Flammer, Norman K. Hollenberg, and Thomas F. Lüscher Originally published17 Mar 2009 https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.108.827022Circulation. 2009;119:1433-1441.
- US Pharm. 2007;32(12)38-42.
- Advances in Nutrition, Volume 11, Issue 2, March 2020, Page 468, doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmz112.
- Jurenka JS. Anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin, a major constituent of Curcuma longa: a review of preclinical and clinical research. Altern Med Rev. 2009 Jun;14(2):141-53. Erratum in: Altern Med Rev. 2009 Sep;14(3):277. PMID: 19594223.
- Ren Y, Wang C, Xu J, Wang S. Cafestol and Kahweol: A Review on Their Bioactivities and Pharmacological Properties. Int J Mol Sci. 2019;20(17):4238. Published 2019 Aug 30. doi:10.3390/ijms20174238.
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