Coffee is widely recognised for its ability to increase our energy levels, but it also has other health benefits you may know about. In this blog, we look at the ways in which coffee could be good for you, and explore decaffeinated coffee beans in more detail.

Coffee's nutritional values

According to BBC Good Food, a 100 ml cup of coffee with milk contains:

• 7 Kcal/31Kj
• 0.5g protein
• 0.4g fat
• 0.5g carbohydrates

Coffee also contains polyphenols - a plant compound that’s full of anti-oxidants. This could indicate that drinking certain amounts of ground coffee is good for you.

Top five health benefits

Though more research needs to be done, early studies suggest that coffee can reduce fatigue, depression, and the likelihood of suffering serious organ degeneration.  

1. Caffeine boosts energy levels
   Coffee contains caffeine, a stimulant that is known for making us more alert, focused, and energised. It’s also thought to improve our athletic performance by reducing the amount of time it takes for us to become tired under exertion.
2. Coffee may support brain health
   According to some studies, drinking coffee could protect you against certain neurodegenerative disorders, including dementia and Alzheimer's. To uncover its full potential more work needs to be done on a larger scale over time.  
3. Could lower risk of depression
   The effect of coffee on the neurotransmitters in our brain is still being researched, but it's thought that it may lower the risk of depression. One study found that those who drink at least four cups of coffee per day are significantly less likely to suffer from depression than those people who drink less – you can read the full study here.  
4. Coffee could protect your heart
   There has been a lot written about the link between coffee consumption and the heart. Some researchers think that drinking coffee can reduce your chances of suffering from heart disease, heart failure, and a stroke.
   
   As caffeine can affect your blood pressure, people with high or low levels are advised to moderate how much coffee they drink.
5. May prevent liver conditions
   Coffee is thought to reduce liver stiffness, a measure used to assess scarring of the liver, and may also help lower the risk of liver cancer in people with liver disease. More research is needed, but this early work holds promise of some good news.  

When is it time to switch to decaf?

For some people drinking coffee isn't an option – pregnant women, for example, are advised not to drink more than 200 mg per day (two cups of instant coffee). In others, caffeine causes side effects, such as restlessness, heart palpitations, and anxiety.

Decaffeinated coffee offers an alternative. It has all the same health benefits of regular coffee and tastes just as good, but it's made with coffee beans that have been stripped of their caffeine content.   

The decaffeinating process

Coffee lovers are turning their back on the traditional processes that use chemicals to remove the caffeine from coffee beans. Increasingly, they are looking for coffee made using the Swiss Water method – a solvent-free process that uses only fresh water.

It works by saturating the beans with water then flushing them with something called green coffee extract (GCE) for a 99.9% caffeine-free coffee. You can read more about the Swiss Water process in our blog on 'how to choose the best decaffeinated coffee'

Starting your coffee journey

If you like the idea of coffee's health benefits, but you're not an avid coffee-drinker and you don't know what you like (yet), then why not start with a coffee subscription service.

Signing up to a 'coffee of the month' subscription service is a great way of learning more about coffee. We send tasting notes with each month's coffee to help you pick out its notable characteristics and flavours.

Over time your palate will develop and you’ll learn to appreciate quality coffee, but most of all, you'll discover what you like and why.  

We've been sourcing coffee for over 200 years, and we uphold the same standards today as Mr George Richardson did when he started Pumphrey’s Coffee in 1750.

When you sign up to one of our subscription boxes (250g bag or 1kg) you can expect to receive a new coffee delivered to your door every month for you to enjoy.

Coffee's health benefits – the bottom line

In the right quantities drinking coffee might be good for your health, but more research needs to be done before these claims can be validated. In the meantime, there are decaffeinated options for people who don't want to drink regular coffee, and for those just starting out on their coffee journey, lots of exciting coffee beans (UK) still to try.