Flavor and ritual are my motivations for drinking coffee. But there’s also a lot of science to support the idea that coffee is actually good for us. 

Here are eight health benefits you might not know about your daily brew (and, um, I’m not a coffee scientist. But I did take college-level statistics and each bullet has links to the studies so you can see those for yourself. 

1. You could live longer.
   Studies show coffee drinking is dose-dependently associated with lower all-cause and cause-specific mortality.
   
   
2. Better blood sugar control.
   Regular coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
   
   
3. An excellent source of antioxidants
   Coffee is one of the richest sources of antioxidants in the American diet. The polyphenols, flavonoids, and chlorogenic and hypocinnamic acids, along with the caffeine in coffee, help reduce inflammation in both health and disease. Some origins may have greater antioxidant capacity than others, while organic coffee, and medium roasts, contain more bioactive compounds than dark-roasted or conventional coffee.
   
   

4. Brain benefits
   Not only does coffee help us focus–it also may help reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s, especially at higher daily doses.
   
   

Now, too much caffeine can cause jitters or sleep trouble, and losing sleep isn’t good for anyone. And some people just don’t feel good when they drink coffee, and we think they should listen to their bodies. Stay tuned as we try to be fair and balanced and provide you with four reasons you shouldn’t drink coffee. Because we know you look to your coffee roaster for honest, rigorous information. Sugarcoating is the confectioner’s domain.

In the meantime, enjoy your own coffee ritual in the knowledge that in a study of 20,000 Mediterranean adults, drinking four cups of coffee per day reduced the risk of death by any cause by 64%. 

And please check out our medium-roasted Organic/Fair Trade Colombia, which, according to the study linked above, provides the theoretical maximum antioxidant content money can buy.

-RL