We tend to eat according to our emotions and habits more than the quality of our nutrition. If you think of a food or drink that is difficult to give up, you may immediately think of bread, chips, chocolate, alcohol… and Coffee! As one of the addictive drinks, coffee probably tops the list when the allure of caffeine makes many people still defy the “false rumors” about poor quality coffee to maintain the habit of drinking cup of coffee every day.
So coffee really good for health? The answer will be “No” if you abuse caffeine to get a temporary sober despite the side effects of this addictive stimulant. However, you can also answer “Yes” if you follow these 5 healthy ways to drink coffee!
1. Choose pure coffee
Nutritionists often recommend that we limit coffee in our daily diet because the caffeine in coffee can cause a number of harmful effects on health. But this doesn’t mean you have to give up coffee. Instead, you need to choose pure coffee to ensure that there are no harmful impurities.
Pure coffee not mixed with impurities such as roasted beans, popcorn, fried rice or other by-products. Pure coffee rang can be laced with wine, butter and aged in a certain temperature environment to create a distinct rich flavor. Pure coffee often has a slightly bland taste and if you are not used to it, it will not taste as good as blended coffee, but will be better for your health. Stay away from flavored coffees, which are tastier but full of chemicals!
2. Do not add sugar
This is possibly the most important thing to drinking coffee in a healthy way for you. In fact, very few people can drink coffee without adding sugar or milk. When you drink coffee, your body even absorbs more sugar than caffeine.
Try removing the sugar from the coffee, you will feel the coffee taste better. This is why men often order black coffee instead of milk coffee. However, most women who like to drink coffee are not used to this pure bitter taste. How to cut sugar to prevent disease and still enjoy coffee? Try adding a little more cream on top. The fat in the cream will soften the bitterness of the coffee. Cream is also a natural sweetener that makes it easier to avoid sugar.
However, you should note that you should not use the usual flavoring creams to decorate the cake! These creams are made with hydrogenated vegetable oils – bad fats, corn syrup and lots of other harmful chemicals. You should choose whipping cream that does not contain sugar because it is separated from pure cow’s milk, although the price is higher, it will be healthier.
3. Grind whole bean coffee at home
For people who are addicted to coffee, the aroma that radiates throughout the house every time coffee is roasted and ground has an irresistible charm! If you love the taste of pure coffee and like to tinker with how to make the same types of coffee as in the shop, invest in a good quality coffee machine. You can prepare coffee by many different methods such as filter, espresso, capuchino, latte…
To ensure health, you should pay attention to how to store coffee before and after grinding. Whole bean coffee, like other beans, will begin to disintegrate and become rancid when the interior is exposed to oxygen and moisture. To see this decomposition with the eye, you can cut an apple and watch what happens: the white flesh begins to brown rather quickly. The fats in roasted coffee are also very easily damaged. Under humid conditions, they are easily hydrolyzed and oxidized. That is the cause of loss of aroma and loss of coffee quality quickly.
Oxygen and moisture are also enemies of antioxidants that help prevent disease. Therefore, it is best to drink coffee as soon as it is roasted. If you want to save your coffee for later, you should store it in a varnished tin-coated steel container, laminated plastic and metal foil packaging, or a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid.
4. Drink 1 cup per day
How many cups of coffee do you drink per day? For coffee addicts, drinking 3-5 cups a day is normal. It seems they can drink coffee anytime!
Although coffee has a number of health benefits, if you drink too much, it will easily lead to “coffee drunk” accompanied by symptoms such as dizziness, headache, diarrhea, heart palpitations, insomnia… should only drink 400 mg of coffee per day to ensure health.
If you find it difficult to quit coffee, you can gradually reduce from 4-5 cups of coffee to 2-3 cups of coffee/day. A small tip to help you reduce caffeine intake is to divide the amount of 1 cup of coffee into 2-3 cups to drink in a day. That way, you won’t have the feeling of “craving for coffee” when it comes to familiar coffee drinking time frames.
5. Drink coffee after meals
Most people have a habit of drinking coffee in the morning. It is best to enjoy a delicious cup of coffee after a meal when you have food to fill your stomach. Caffeine can stimulate your body to release sugar into the bloodstream, causing the pancreas to release insulin. An empty stomach can lower your blood sugar and make you crave sugar.
Therefore, caffeine is one of the causes of sudden spikes in blood sugar leading to hyperglycemia complications putting you at risk of diabetes. What’s more, the caffeine in coffee can suppress cravings so you don’t feel hungry. This will lower blood sugar and increase cravings for coffee and sugar. The food in your stomach makes it easier to regulate blood sugar response and control cravings.
However, you should not drink coffee after a late dinner because it will be close to bedtime. For a good and deep sleep, avoid caffeine about 4-6 hours before bed!
