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It wasn’t long ago that coffee was believed by many to be bad for your health. Some folks even put coffee in a category with cigarettes and alcohol. Oh my… how things have changed. There is increasing evidence that the potential health benefits from coffee consumption are very real and possibly very substantial. Over the past few years, research study results have been piling up proving the positive effects of coffee consumption from a number of different researchers. WebMD, for instance, reports that a growing body of research indicates that coffee drinkers are less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, certain cancers, heart rhythm problems and strokes. Other organizations have reported similar stories and news stories about the potential healthy benefits of coffee been are popping up in the news with increased frequency. Research studies continue to be published from all over the world with results that strongly suggests coffee consumption may offer many health benefits and that those benefits probably far outweigh any risks.

Watch Video From The CBS Morning Show Discussing The Health Benefits Of Coffee.

This should be not be so shocking. After all, we’ve known forever that fruits and berries are among the healthiest things we can eat. Any what is coffee?

Coffee is a beverage that is brewed from the roasted berries (coffee beans) of a shrub. Coffee beans, or coffee berries, are part of a plant. Think about how many modern medicines come from plants. Even the go-to wonder drug of the last century or so, Aspirin, comes from a plant, or more specifically from a tree, or better yet…from tree bark. The active ingredient in Aspirin is salicylic acid, which was discovered in the bark of the willow tree way back in 1763. In fact many modern pharmaceuticals are synthesized versions of substances of substances from plants. So, looking at coffee through this lens, maybe it should not be so surprising that new potential coffee health benefits are being discovered.

One interesting new aspect of coffee and health has to do with an antioxidant present in raw green coffee beans called chlorogenic acid.

Some research over the years has suggested that chlorogenic acid may have an interesting and mostly positive effect on blood sugar in humans. Some of the research suggests that chlorogenic acid may help control spiking blood sugar after eating. Since high blood sugar is a factor in a variety of nasty metabolic syndrome diseases including diabetes, heart disease, possibly some cancers, maybe some forms of dementia and more this is fascinating. So, if the hypotheses about chlorogenic acid and blood sugar proves to be true, one can only imagine the potential benefits. But, and this is very important to understand, much of the research that has made the news is from small research studies and some of it is not peer-reviewed. So do not accept research results from small pilot studies as definitive. It is not. Much more research needs to be done on chlorogenic acid.

In recent years, supplements made from green coffee bean extract containing chlorogenic acid have been big sellers in the nutritional supplement industry. Much of the rapid sales growth is no doubt attributable to a televised recommendation by a celebrity doctor on his popular TV show, during which he recommended green coffee for fitness reasons. Once that televised recommendation was aired green coffee supplement sales skyrocketed. When this particular celebrity doctor makes a recommendation it is often followed by huge marketing campaigns by unscrupulous companies who promote products based on wildly exaggerated claims about potential benefits. This was certainly the case with green coffee. But, in spite of all the noise and hype, chlorgenic acid has been subject to research over the years for a variety of things. So, we will wait and see what future research comes up with. In the meantime we have not heard of any known dangerous green coffee or chlorogenic acid side effects as of yet. We await further research on chlorogenic acid and green coffee extracts, as well as our favorite beverage, traditional roasted coffee.

So, coffee is a much more complex beverage than most of us ever realized. Evidence continues to mount that traditional brewed coffee from roasted coffee beans, and potentially chlorogenic acid from raw coffee beans may offer benefits. Much of the world’s population loves coffee. In fact, coffee is the 2nd most consumed beverage in the world, second only to water. So, this news is encouraging for those of us who love coffee. Remember, however, when considering the health benefits of coffee consumption, that does not mean drinking coffee with sugar.  Coffee is good… but sugar is bad.

So, if you want to think of yourself as drinking a healthy beverage when sipping your coffee, make sure you drink it without sugar!