Two cups of coffee (2 100 ml) per day do not pose any health risks for an adult in good health. Contrarily, caffeine, an alkaloid from the methylxanthine family, has health benefits when consumed in moderation. For example, it can help with digestion and relieve headaches.

Nutritional info: 98 g of water, 0.18 mg of vitamin B2, 5.2 NE*, and 80 mg of magnesium are all present in 100 ml of espresso or brewed coffee.

And finally, is giving a healthy adult a coffee a kind deed? We might exaggerate a little, but check out these 10 benefits of coffee for yourself!

*For reasons we won’t go into here, the NE unit stands for “niacin equivalent”.

1. To stop migraines

If you have chronic, regular migraines, the culprits are most likely your brain arteries. As impressive as it may seem, a good cup of coffee can stop a headache just as well as an aspirin:

    – Like paracetamol, coffee has a vasoconstrictor effect.

    – It contracts the muscle fibers, which reduces the size of the vessels involved and stops, or reduces, the pain.

A study also shows that high-dose caffeine (300 mg orally or 500 mg intravenously) provides rapid relief and reduces the duration of pain and the need for other treatments in patients with acute headaches.

You can also combine it with pharmacy analgesics to optimize their analgesic action and increase the rate of patients responding to tier I analgesics (paracetamol, ibuprofen, aspirin). The adjuvant benefit of caffeine can be observed from a dose of 65 mg, with caffeine consumption ideally remaining below 400 or 500 mg per day.

Good to know: withdrawal headaches can occur even in moderate daily coffee consumers; therefore, two studies estimate that it would be possible to reduce the risk of headaches in excessive caffeine consumers by gradual weaning.

2. To improve transit

In case of constipation, coffee helps to recover a correct transit. If you take a cup after a meal, caffeine stimulates the secretion of digestive enzymes and helps the body to assimilate food more quickly.

If you are prone to loose stools, be careful, coffee can act as an effective laxative.

Good to know: be careful not to abuse it because coffee also irritates the digestive tract. Moreover, in the case of hemorrhoids, coffee is not recommended!

3. To improve muscular endurance

Even if the effect is only temporary, caffeine helps to improve muscular endurance. Thus, 60 minutes after consuming it, caffeine favors endurance, especially in isotonic exercises (against a constant force, by lifting weights, for example).

This is because caffeine potentiates the nervous message between the brain and the neuromuscular junction. In addition, it increases the release of calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum, which facilitates muscle contraction.

Last but not least, beware of the harmful effects of coffee in high doses

Beware, a high dose of coffee can also have harmful effects on the body! In particular, it stimulates the nervous system for 3 to 5 hours: the consumer may have difficulty falling asleep during this period.

Furthermore, caffeine promotes anxiety and can precipitate panic attacks. Patients with such disorders are susceptible to small doses of caffeine.

If you consume too much coffee, it is unlikely to relieve your migraine, but instead will make your headaches worse.

On the other hand, reasonable consumption of coffee can help prevent strokes. Still, in excess, it can be responsible for aneurysm rupture or stroke in people at risk (in case of arrhythmia, hyperthyroidism, and the elderly, children, and pregnant or breastfeeding women).

Chronic caffeine consumption can cause dependency syndrome, especially in people who smoke or have an inappropriate consumption of alcohol.

The prevalence of caffeine dependence could increase due to the promotion of caffeinated beverages to teenagers, and cases of intoxication have been reported (nausea, vomiting, tachycardia, hypertension, agitation, dizziness).

Contrary to popular belief, a cup of coffee does not make you lose weight. On the contrary, coffee is highly caloric in high doses. Prefer tea if you have a slimming objective!

Moreover, it does not reduce the level of alcohol in the blood. During a drunken evening, do not drive, even after a good coffee! 

Want to read some more? Here is another excellent article: 6 Reasons to Drink Coffee