JAVA!

That's right, the topic du jour is COFFEE! I don't know about all of you, but I really love a warm cup of coffee every now and again (like every couple hours). I'm a little ADD (if you couldn't tell by the meandering topics you find here) and coffee really chills me out and helps me focus. Plus, in this cooler weather we're getting into it just feels so nice having a warm cup between my hands.

At one time I worried about what coffee drinking might do to my health but more and more I'm finding out what it could do FOR my health (and yours!). Now, I'm not talking about drinking 500 calorie vente mocha latte blah blah blah 5 times a day. I believe you should get away with as little additives in your coffee as possible. I started drinking coffee in New Orleans at Cafe Du Monde and coffee that was half milk and sugar was the norm for me for some time after. Now I can drink it mostly black, with just a little vanilla almond milk to take the edge off.

So I've compiled some statistics I found online to keep it short and sweet and included a couple of links if you want to read some articles on the subject, but here it goes:

The health benefits of coffee!

Heart Disease (up to 25% reduction in mortality risk (for women))

Diabetes (up to 60% reduced risk)

Dementia (up to 65% reduced risk)

Colon Cancer (up to 25% reduced risk)

Cirrhosis (up to 80% reduced risk)

Gallstones (almost 50% reduced risk)

Parkinson’s Disease (up to 80% reduced risk)

Headache Relief

Asthma Relief

Cavity Protection (because of anti-bacterial and anti-adhesive properties of compounds within coffee)

and the links:
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/coffee-new-health-food

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/story?id=1074559

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/28/coffee-health-benefits-how-coffee-might-save-your-life.html

There you have it! So no feeling guilty about brewing up some joe in the morning to get you going! Keep it on the healthy side by keeping all the sugar and processed junk out of it and hopefully this simple change will benefit you for the rest of your longer life ;-)

Live well, live long,
Cassandra Wyzik
B.S. - ACSM Certified Personal Trainer
www.FitToYouBrevard.com
"If you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything"