We all either drink coffee or know someone who does and we all know a few effects that it has on us, but do you know how it affects your health? Actually, coffee has a lot of overlooked health benefits. That is what I’m going to be telling you today.

One thing that I thought was very interesting was that coffee can actually reduce your risk of heart disease. This study by the American Heart Association consisted of 1570 Dutch subjects without coronary heart disease. They had each subject drink a set amount of coffee and calculated coronary calcification using electron beam computed tomography. After this, they were each given Agatson calcification score. If the score is greater than 400, coronary calcification is considered severe. All of the subjects scored lower than 400 thereby proving that coffee lowers the risk of heart disease.

Something that intrigued me when I saw it is that coffee can prevent cavities. When I saw this, I thought it was to good to be true, but I was wrong. According to the Journal of Conservative Dentistry, a study was done that included a random sample of 1000 people of both genders, and it found that drinking coffee could be associated with cavity prevention. The tested black coffee, coffee with milk, and coffee with milk and sugar. They noticed that cavity prevention was best when the coffee was just black. After black coffee, the best one was coffee with milk. That leaves the worst one to be coffee with both milk and sugar.

This group did a study involving 50,739 women that took place over the course of 10 years. They had all of them drink coffee and of the 50,739 women, there were only 2,607 cases of depression. That is only about 5.1% of the study and that is over the course of 10 years, not all at once. Compared to the worldwide average of about 7.6%, they did pretty well! Remember, it took them 10 years and only 5.1% of them actually got depression. The worldwide average is about 150% bigger than the percentage that they got in the study. If the worldwide average had this percentage that the study got, that would be 190 million fewer would have depression. 190 million! That is a lot of people

Another study by the Journal of Conservative Dentistry found that coffee consumption has an inverse relationship with gum disease. This means that it can help lower your risk of getting gum disease. They conducted a study of 414 people that contained both genders. They varied coffee consumption for each group, then followed up afterward to see which groups were at the greatest risk to develop gum disease. They found that the group that had been drinking the most coffee was the least likely to develop gum disease. I thought that this was pretty neat.

All in all, coffee has a lot of overlooked health benefits. From what I gathered with the studies, it is best for you when you drink it black and caffeinated. I know that coffee is bound to have a few negative health consequences, but almost everything does. Most of the studies show that 5 cups are about the limit for health benefits, and any more could negate them. Like all things, it is better in moderation.