IS COFFEE GOOD FOR YOU?

Coffee makes the world go round, or at least keeps the Swoope app team firing on busy days, but there seems to be a coffee information overload.

A recent article in Entrepreneur suggested that whilst we all cling on to our caffeine hit in the hope of being more productive, research suggest that it is actually making us dumber! That’s right, apparently the more coffee we consumer, the less intelligent we become.

This sparked a big debate amongst the Swoope staff. Is coffee really slowing us down on the road to success? And what about all the research that suggests coffee is actually good for us?

So we might not be able to claim our spot on mastermind, but two new studies have indicated that drinking coffee can actually make us live longer. In fact, just one cup a day can cut the risk of dying early by 12 percent. This reduces further with the more coffee we drink. Up to three a day reduces the risk by 18 percent.

Then there are the links to lowering the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 50 percent (although you have to drink four cups a day!), and even delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

There is even a study that suggests coffee can make you a better athlete, although even we find that one a stretch!

However, as much as we like coffee, too much and the body crumbles. Quite literally when it comes to our bones. A 2006 study published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research suggest coffee may even kill the cells that make up new bone, increasing the risk of osteoporosis.

When it comes to our mouths, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Coffee breath is an actual thing. It makes the mouth drier, meaning cells in the mouth aren’t washed away and start to smell. However, in good news for teeth, coffee contains a chemical that stops tooth-decaying bacteria attaching to your teeth.

Don’t panic if you can drink the black stuff, just the smell of coffee has benefits to our health. A quick whiff and it immediately perks us up and lowers our stress levels.So if the smell makes us happier, imagine what drinking it does? The caffeine high might be a bit of a myth, but studies show that the antioxidants in coffee actually makes us 10 percent less likely to be depressed than those who don’t drink it.

So all in all, as with all things in life, coffee in moderation is no bad thing. We are definitely not willing to give up our daily caffeine hit at Swoope – and with so many great cafes available on the Swoope app, why would we?

Download the Swoope app, use the code SWOOPE17 to get £3.00 credit and enjoy a great cup of coffee (and all those health benefits) on us!