The word “coffee” comes from the Greek word “kaweh”, meaning “strength and passion”, and is one of the three most popular beverages in the world, along with cocoa and tea.

Most Westerners like coffee simply because it tastes good. But the main reason behind it is health!

So today, Coffee Mini Class will take you through the relationship between coffee and health.

Coffee can stabilise blood sugar

The Daily Mail reports that researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich are working on a brand new treatment for diabetes. And the key to the new treatment is: coffee.

The team discovered that there is a type of kidney cell that produces insulin accordingly if the caffeine component is detected in the blood stream. They then tested it in 10 diabetic mice, and when the mice drank coffee, they had better control of their blood sugar levels in their bodies than the average mouse!

The team said that similar kidney cells are found in humans and that the exact mechanism of insulin production needs to be further determined.

A study of 126,000 people at Harvard University in the US showed that regular coffee drinkers had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Coffee may reduce the risk of colorectal cancer

In a study reported in Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, Stephanie L. Schmit and others from the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Centre reported that coffee reduced the risk of colorectal cancer by 26%.

The researchers said, “Coffee contains several components that promote colorectal health; caffeine and polyphenols have antioxidant effects, black extracts promote colon motility, and diterpenoids fight oxidative stress damage.”

Researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have previously published a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology claiming that regular coffee consumption significantly reduces tumour recurrence and improves survival rates in patients with stage 3 colon cancer.

And further analysis showed that the lower cancer risk was due to the amount of caffeine absorbed by patients, rather than the amount of other components of coffee.

Coffee reduces the risk of liver cancer

Researchers from the Department of Clinical Sciences and Public Health of the University of Milan and the Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacology in Milan have reported in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology that the intake of any type of coffee may reduce the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by up to 50% (depending on the amount consumed).

The report examined 16 studies conducted between 1996 and 2012, totalling 3,153 cases. The researchers said that the positive effect of coffee in preventing liver cancer may be attributed to coffee’s well-known effectiveness in preventing diabetes, which is a contributing factor to liver cancer, and another possibility is that coffee prevents cirrhosis and has a beneficial effect on enzymes in the liver.

Coffee reduces risk of melanoma

Research published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute on 20 January 2015 suggests that drinking more than four cups of coffee a day can reduce the risk of skin cancer by 20% over a decade.

Theoretically, the various components of coffee have been shown to influence a considerable number of molecular pathways that can reduce the risk of UV-related skin cancer. Still, such a large sample of studies conducted with human subjects is compelling.

Coffee inhibits breast cancer growth

Women diagnosed with breast cancer and treated with tamoxifen who drank coffee inhibited tumour growth and reduced the risk of recurrence, researchers at Skane University Hospital at Lund University in the UK published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

The researchers concluded that caffeine and caffeic acid can lead to impaired cell cycle progression and enhanced cell death, enhancing the effects of tamoxifen treatment.

Coffee reduces risk of head and neck cancer

A survey of head and neck cancer at the Aichi Cancer Centre in Japan found that people who drank more than three cups of coffee a day had an approximately 40% lower risk of head and neck cancer than those who drank less than one cup.

Drinking coffee is good for your skin

Coffee can speed up the metabolism of the skin, enabling it to expel old keratin and reduce the appearance of dark circles under the eyes caused by poor circulation. In addition, it has an antioxidant effect. Drinking coffee regularly keeps skin cells energised and prevents cellular oxidation, thus fighting ageing.

Drinking coffee after a meal is good for the stomach and digestion.

Drinking coffee after a meal is good for your stomach health. However, if you drink coffee when your stomach is empty, the gastric juices secreted can damage the gastric mucosa, thus damaging your stomach health.

Meat lovers would do well to have a cup of coffee after meals, as it has a very good effect of relieving grease and aiding digestion. In addition, the content of soluble dietary fibre in coffee is higher than that of orange juice, and caffeine can also stimulate the intestines to speed up peristalsis. Therefore, drinking coffee has the effect of relieving constipation.

Drinking coffee can protect you from radiation damage

Radiation damage has become one of the more prominent types of pollution and hazards nowadays. This is especially true of radiation from household appliances. For example, computers that are operated for long periods of time, microwave ovens and televisions at home. Some studies have clearly shown that coffee helps to prevent radiation injuries.

Drinking coffee can relieve exercise soreness

Drinking two cups of coffee after exercise can help relieve symptoms of muscle soreness. Research suggests that drinking coffee can help people relieve muscle pain caused by over-exercise. It is worth noting that caffeine, although effective in relieving exercise pain, is only effective for people who do not drink coffee regularly.

Drinking coffee can relieve alcohol

The chlorogenic acid in coffee may prevent alcohol poisoning. Drinking the right amount of coffee after drinking alcohol can make the acetaldehyde transformed from alcohol oxidise quickly and break down into water and carbon dioxide and be excreted from the body.

Drinking coffee can prevent gallstones

Some studies suggest that caffeinated coffee stimulates the gallbladder to contract and reduces the cholesterol in the bile that tends to form gallstones, thus reducing the risk of the most common form of gallstone disease.

Drinking coffee to prevent depression

Regular coffee drinkers feel happier, less irritable and in an improved state of mind after drinking it. Some studies have shown that drinking a cup of coffee when irritable or depressed can really help to calm the mood.

So how much coffee should you drink each day?

A large study by Professor Hu and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health suggests that we have a 6%, 8%, 15% and 12% reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality in never-smoking subjects who consumed ≤1, 1-3, 3-5 and >5 cups of coffee per day, respectively.

Combined with some of the previous studies on cancer risk reduction, perhaps 2-3 cups of coffee per day is a good choice.