Coffee is one of the most largely consumed drinks in the world, around 50% of those over the age of 18 consume a cup of coffee each day. As a drink, coffee has been around for approximately 500 years, which is a surprisingly short period of time since it’s just as or even more popular than other largely consumed drinks such as: tea and alcohol, which has both been around for over 1,000 years.

Whether or not coffee is good for you, has been a debate for many years. Some people see coffee as something to avoid due to it being addictive and causing higher blood pressure, irregular heart beats and higher adrenaline levels. However, all these things can be prevented by controlling the amount of coffee you consume on a daily basis.

Experts say that consuming four 8-ounce cups of coffee each day, is completely safe. In fact, drinking a healthy amount of coffee each day can provide you with many benefits that can improve your health and wellness. Let’s discuss what these benefits are…

Here are the benefits of drinking coffee every day:

1. Coffee makes you more alert and focused

Consuming one to six cups of coffee daily is known to help you focus and drastically improves your mental alertness. This happens because of the caffeine that coffee contains, the caffeine stimulates the central nervous system and therefore boosts the brain’s production of dopamine. Dopamine is what controls our ability to focus and stay concentrated. Due to all of this coffee also makes you smarter.

2. Coffee helps you lose weight

If you’re trying to lose some of that belly fat, than drinking coffee everyday will help you on your weight loss journey. This is because coffee helps you to reduce the feeling of hunger and your desire to eat sugary snacks, as coffee contains magnesium and potassium. Not only does coffee help you to break down body fat, but it also uses it as fuel, improving your physical performance. So if you’re into fitness or want to get into fitness, coffee will become your best friend.

3. Coffee protects your body and brain

It has been discovered that coffee is great at protecting our body and brain, as it reduces the risk for many diseases such as: prostate cancer in men by 20%, endometrial cancer in women by 25%, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer, dementia, type 2 diabetes and it also prevents the development of basal cell carcinoma, which is the most common type of skin cancer. It also protects your liver and reduces the risk for strokes as well as the chance of premature death by 25%. This is because coffee contains a lot of antioxidants and it supplies your blood with a high level of caffeine.

4. Coffee improves your mental health

If you’ve ever felt a whole lot better after having a cup of coffee, this is because coffee actually helps to improve your mood. As mentioned above, coffee stimulates the central nervous system and this improves your mental health as it boosts the production of neurotransmitters such as: serotonin, dopamine and nor-adrenaline. This not only puts you in a better mood, but also helps to fight depression and reduce the risk of suicide by 50%.

5. Coffee is good for your teeth and bones

In Brazil it was discovered that strong black coffee reduces the amount of bacteria on your teeth, preventing decay and adding milk to your coffee will help to protect your teeth even more. Research has also been carried out for many years to show that coffee helps your bones, however nothing was ever confirmed, it was only recently that it was discovered that those who drink coffee have greater bone density than those who don’t drink coffee.

6. Coffee contains essential nutrients

Just one cup of coffee contains many important nutrients, such as: vitamin B2, which helps your body to break down proteins, fats and carbohydrates and it also plays a huge role in maintaining your body’s energy supply, vitamin B5 which promotes healthy skin, hair and eyes, vitamin B3 which boosts brain function, manganese which improves bone health and potassium which prevents strokes and kidney stones.

It is without a doubt that coffee, in the right amount can be our best friend. Now, what are you still doing here reading? Go drink some coffee!