Coffee Makes You Feel Good

Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

We love that Hippocrates predicted that food could actually heal the body. It’s probably best to think about this in terms of food for the soul and food that’s good for the body as well.

We bet no one would have thought that a cup of coffee would do the trick, but the fact is, due to its worldwide popularity, coffee is probably the greatest source of antioxidants in the global diet. While we wouldn’t recommended drinking lots of it, for some of us, it may just be the superfood of the century. Here are some great reasons to start the day with this healing drink.

It may make you live longer!

Yes, we know that we’re all going to move on eventually, but coffee appears to lengthen the “when” for some people who have certain chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. That’s according to a large 2012 study anyway. In fact, the study found that the more coffee (three or more cups a day) that was drunk, the longer the participant was likely to live, regardless of whether they drank regular or decaffeinated coffee.

It helps protect your brain.

Coffee drinkers are more likely to resist development of dementia and Alzheimer’s later in life according to a 2009 study . Another study done on rats found that just the smell of coffee helped to reduce stress that was associated with loss of sleep. So, if you’re smiling next time you roll out of bed and walk toward the coffee pot, there may be a reason why! After all, the smell of coffee is very inviting isn’t it!

It’s great for your skin.

Drinking coffee may help you to ward off the most diagnosed form of skin cancer! A study in the journal Cancer Research that looked specifically at the caffeine in coffee demonstrated that coffee drinkers had a lower risk of developing basal cell carcinoma.

It’s good for brain function

Caffeine doesn’t just help you feel better after too little sleep the night before, it actually improves the human brain above and beyond normal values. After dosing volunteers with small amounts of caffeine first thing in the morning (which they apparently had to do in a special facility, instead of going to any office anywhere in the world), scientists found increases in vigilance, vigor, energy, anger, efficiency and reaction time. Or in other words, caffeine is Batman.

Of course, at Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses we don’t advocate drinking lots and lots of coffee but it doesn’t hurt to have one or two here and there does it. Especially when you’ve got such great excuses!

While you’re there, why not pick up a tasty treat to go with your coffee. Go on, treat yourself to some Banana Bread.