The word from the nutritionist

Coffee: why is it a good habit?

The coffee break is an undeniable ritual that scans the day of many people.

There are those who drink a coffee to have the optimal energy to face the day and people who take it to do a pleasant break with their colleagues or simply to have a little talk with friends.

The most known effect is its ability to stimulate the attention thanks to its content of caffeine, a substance that stimulates the nervous centres producing a pleasant wellness sensation.  Besides, coffee has a lot of other substances that have beneficial effects on your body, but only a few people know them.

For example the caffeic acid, thanks to its vasoconstriction properties, was used in some pharmaceutical products against the migraine and the headache. The exciting properties of coffee have beneficial effects both for the pulmonary expansion (useful for the asthmatic people) and the increase of the diuresis.

Drinking one coffee at the end of the meal aids the digestion: the caffeine, in fact, stimulates the secretion of gastric juices, the contraction of the gall-bladder and the production of bile. Indeed, it optimizes the intestinal functions, helping the motion with an important action against constipation.
Finally the coffee is rich in antioxidant, in particular of the chlorogenic acids (about 250mg for 100ml of product).

Many analysis show that, thanks to these antioxidants, the people who drink coffee have a superior protection against some diseases as the diabetes type 2 and the Parkinson's disease. These results were presented by the NFI (Nutrition Foundation of Italy) in occasion of the Convention that took place in Milan on April 2008.

 

 


Published 12 October 2016