You Don't Need To Give Up Coffee, Just Use It Right To Keep Your Mind Clear

Do you drink coffee? Most people do. In small quantities, it's actually perfect for you to help clear your head and keep you focused. But, if you start going too far, it can become an addiction and be detrimental to your body.

If you need to cut back or even give up coffee, it's probably a good idea to stay in the one to two cups per day range. That way, you can enjoy your coffee and get the health benefits. But, just be careful drifting back into the addiction range.

What Coffee Has In It

Coffee has some antioxidants, a trace amount of vitamins, and a few minerals, like calcium and magnesium. But, the primary reason most people drink coffee is for the caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant that helps clear our head, give us energy, and make us go better and faster.

It's also highly addictive, with our body craving it more and more. And with that addiction, we need more to get the same effects. That's why long-term coffee drinkers need bigger and bigger mugs or have to drink all day.

Getting off the addiction of caffeine can be difficult. Stopping cold turkey can bring on headaches and nausea as your body craves its stimulant. And if you cut back slowly, you might find yourself craving the coffee all the time. But, it's for your benefit that you keep it at a healthy level.

Why Too Much Coffee Isn't Good

Addiction is one big piece of the puzzle, but there are others.

Bad coffee has been making its way more and more into the market. It has a toxin that grows on the ground coffee. If you've ever gotten sick, had a headache, or not feeling well, you might have gotten the bad coffee.

If you have insomnia or general restlessness, this could be too much coffee. The maximum recommended amount of caffeine during the day's 400 mg, or approximately what you get in four cups. Many people are more sensitive than that, and two cups reaches our limit.

And if you have high cholesterol, you may want to cut out the coffee or other traditionally brewed coffee beverages. Coffee contains cafestol and kahweol, two components that increase your natural LDL levels. An occasional cup may not do anything to you, but if you drink espresso, Turkish coffee, French press, or unfiltered coffee, it may be raising your risk.

How To Have Your Coffee And Enjoy The Effects

But, coffee is not all bad. Certain studies show that coffee helps boost physical and mental performance, helping you to stay focused and alert. It can also help increase your metabolism, which can help you burn fat and lose weight. This is one of the reasons why many weight loss supplements add caffeine to the product.

But amazingly, coffee has also been shown to help reduce the risk of cancer. The caffeine may help prevent basal cell carcinoma, one of the most common types of skin cancer. Coffee can also help thin your blood, reducing the risk of stroke.

One to two cups of coffee can help reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. It can give you a little boost by increasing the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline. Some coffee drinkers also have a reduced risk of suicide.

How to keep it all in balance

Coffee is a great thing, something to be enjoyed, but it should not be relied on to keep you focused or alert. If you start depending on the caffeine and coffee, you're developing an addiction. Once your body crosses over into that realm, the health benefits are lost.

If you're relying on coffee to give you a little boost to your mood or energy, and then you don't have it, you experience tiredness and depression more acutely. The wild fluctuations in your energy and hormones can cause you to put on weight and get stuck in that depression.

If you're a regular coffee drinker, skipping one to two days a week can help your body flush out the excess caffeine and give your brain and hormones a chance to restore their natural balance. That way, you can enjoy your coffee and all the benefits of brings without falling into depression.