What exactly does coffee do for our health?
For the seventh year in a row, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world. Could it be a coincidence that the Finns also drink more coffee than anyone else on the planet? Sure, their robust welfare system, top-notch education system, and abundance of saunas likely play a part in their well-being—but could coffee be contributing to their happiness too?
Coffee energises people, it brings us together, and for many, the taste alone is a daily joy. Clearly, there is something about the drink that makes us happy, with research indicating that drinking a few cups a day can lower the risk of depression and lead to somewhat improved levels of optimism. All this being said, it’s hard to establish the long-term implications of coffee drinking, and with longitudinal studies on how coffee affects our mood in the long-run being near-impossible to conduct, it’s hard to say whether this joy is simply short-lived.
Research indicates, that coffee consumption has very real psychological effects. It can improve the functionality of the brain’s visual network and the cerebellum, the part of the brain that coordinates muscular activity. Yet, while drinking coffee might improve alertness, it can also negatively affect your mental state, and for some, increased coffee consumption provokes higher levels of anxiety and stress, and can decrease the emotional processing ability of the brain.
Beyond the mental effects, coffee may influence our physical health, too. Historically, people worried that coffee was bad for the body, but as more research emerges, this concern has been largely debunked. As one expert put it: “We did not find any relationship between coffee consumption and increased risk of death from any cause, death from cancer, or death from cardiovascular disease.” And that holds true even for those “who drank up to six cups of coffee per day.”
Not only does moderate coffee drinking appear to be safe, it might actually have health benefits. Habitual coffee drinkers consistently show lower rates of type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, liver cancer and cardiovascular diseases. As Frank Hu, chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, put it: “[For] most people, coffee actually confers some health benefits.” It seems as though 2-5 cups per day might be a healthy amount for most of us.
Importantly, there are a few caveats: Firstly, everyone’s body is genetically different, and the way different people respond to coffee can vary. We all have that one friend who can drink one cup after another without feeling anything. Some may want to drink more or less depending on that. Furthermore, the scientific research on how children react to coffee is very limited, and drinking coffee during a pregnancy “can increase your risk of pregnancy complications, such as low birthweight, and even miscarriage.”
Importantly, a lot of the aforementioned health benefits merely stem from observational studies. It’s hard to conduct randomised, controlled studies on this topic, so we can’t say for sure how much these benefits are directly caused by coffee.
So, is coffee really the secret to happiness? Maybe not entirely, but it sure doesn’t hurt! Whether it’s to fuel your morning or just to add a little joy to your day, coffee has its perks. It won’t guarantee eternal bliss, but a few cups can certainly keep you smiling, as it seems to in the world’s happiest country. Just be sure to balance it with a good night’s sleep and maybe a sauna session or two, just as the Finns do it!
