Starting the day with a cup of coffee is not only a habit or routine but a seeming necessity for many people.
With so many ways to enjoy and prepare coffee, from cold brew to espresso, coffee with cream and sugar to black, and bulletproof coffee to fancy lattes, coffee orders are nearly as diverse as the people who drink them.
People gravitate towards the aroma and taste of coffee and enjoy the morning ritual of starting their day with their favorite cup of Joe.
Moreover, unless you are drinking decaf coffee, most people rely on the energizing jolt of caffeine in coffee, a powerful stimulant that can increase energy, focus, and attention, among other benefits.
But is it bad to drink coffee every day? What happens if you drink coffee every day? What are the pros and cons of drinking coffee?
In this article, we will discuss what happens if you drink coffee every day and the various pros and cons of habitual coffee drinking.
We will cover:
- Is It Good to Drink Coffee Every Day?
- Is It Bad to Drink Coffee Every Day?
Let’s get started!
Is It Good to Drink Coffee Every Day?
Opinions about the health ramifications of coffee are mixed. There is a lot of evidence to suggest the health benefits of drinking coffee, but excessive coffee consumption can also have adverse health effects.
In general, as with most things, moderate consumption of coffee should be healthy for most people, but drinking too much coffee can have consequences for your health.
Here are some of the benefits of drinking coffee every day:
#1: Coffee Contains Some Nutrients and Antioxidants
Most people assume that aside from providing caffeine, coffee has little to no nutritional value, but there are actually some trace amounts of certain nutrients found naturally in coffee beans.
Coffee is very low in calories. A typical 8-ounce (240-ml) cup of coffee provides only about 3 calories along with the following vitamins and minerals:
- Vitamin B2 (riboflavin): 11% of the DV
- Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid): 6% of the DV
- Manganese: 3% of the DV
- Potassium: 3% of the DV
- Magnesium: 2% of the DV
- Vitamin B1 (thiamine): 2% of the DV
- Vitamin B3 (niacin): 2% of the DV
- Phosphorus: 1% of the DV
- Folate: 1% of the DV
In addition to micronutrients, coffee is high in antioxidants, which is why consuming a moderate amount of caffeine can be advantageous for your health.
In fact, studies suggest that coffee actually provides more antioxidants in the typical Western diet than fruits and vegetables combined.
It’s important to note that this doesn’t necessarily mean that coffee beans contain more antioxidants than fruits and vegetables, but because the typical fruit and vegetable consumption falls well below optimal levels for many people, getting antioxidants through coffee becomes even more valuable for overall health.
#2: Drinking Coffee Every Day May Reduce Your Risk of Death
Perhaps the strongest case for drinking coffee every day is that long-term studies have found that drinking coffee can decrease the risk of all-cause mortality.
For example, one long-term study involving more than 400,000 individuals found that coffee drinkers had a significantly lower risk of death over the 12-year study period than non-coffee drinkers.
Moreover, findings suggested that it wasn’t just a small amount of coffee that seemed to be the most advantageous for longevity.
Rather, drinking 4 to 5 cups of coffee per day was associated with the lowest respective risks of death, decreasing the mortality rate by 12% in men and 16% in women, respectively.
#3: Drinking Coffee Every Day May Reduce Your Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Evidence also suggests that drinking coffee every day, or habitual coffee drinking, can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by as much as 23-67%.
For example, one large review of 18 clinical trials and studies that amassed the data of over 450,000 individuals found that there was an association between the amount of coffee consumed and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
For every cup of coffee that individuals drank per day, the risk of type 2 diabetes dropped by 7%.
#4: Drinking Coffee Every Day May Improve the Health of Your Liver
The liver is one of the primary detoxifying organs in the body, and caffeine is a drug, so many people would naturally assume that drinking coffee every day could be taxing on the liver, as this organ must process the “toxin” in coffee.
However, on the contrary, evidence suggests that coffee drinkers actually have a significantly lower risk of developing cirrhosis, the end stage of liver damage in which liver tissue scars over and is no longer functional, as well as liver cancer.
For example, studies have found that the risk of cirrhosis and liver cancer may be up to 84% lower and 40% lower in habitual coffee drinkers, respectively.
#5: Drinking Coffee Every Day Can Help Increase Energy and Boost Metabolism
Caffeine is a stimulant, and it also increases the production of other stimulating neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and norepinephrine, helping reduce fatigue and increase alertness, focus, and attention.
Evidence suggests that drinking coffee can cause short-term improvement in cognitive function, decrease reaction time, improve mood, reduce fatigue, and boost cognitive function.
Coffee can also increase metabolic rate, with some studies suggesting a boost of about 3 to 11%.
#6: Drinking Coffee Every Day May Reduce the Risk of Depression and Suicide
In addition to the potential physical health benefits of drinking coffee every day, there are also some mental health benefits of drinking coffee.
Some studies have found that when comparing coffee drinkers, those who drink the highest amount of coffee per day have the lowest risk of depression, and those who drink a minimum of 4 cups of coffee per day have been found to have over a 50% lower risk of committing suicide.
Is It Bad to Drink Coffee Every Day?
The primary problem with drinking coffee every day is that, like many drugs and psychoactive substances, caffeine is a drug that the body can develop a tolerance to. As your tolerance increases, the potency of the stimulating effects of the drug decreases.
If you drink coffee every day, there’s a good chance you have experienced this tolerance build-up in your own life.
Probably, when you first started drinking coffee, a single cup of coffee might leave you feeling somewhat jittery and agitated.
Over time, your body became accustomed to the caffeine dosage in your coffee, and you would feel energized without feeling necessarily hyperactive or buzzy.
However, with continued, habitual coffee drinking, your caffeine tolerance would increase such that your usual cup of coffee would no longer feel stimulating. You would still feel rather sluggish and “normal“ after drinking the full cup as if you had not had any coffee at all.
Drinking coffee every day increases your caffeine tolerance, necessitating the need to progressively drink more and more coffee to get the same buzz and boost of energy.
Furthermore, not only does drinking coffee every day lead to a developing tolerance to caffeine, but it can also cause you to develop a reliance on caffeine.
Caffeine has been shown to be an addictive substance, and like other addictive drugs, you can experience withdrawal symptoms if you stop drinking it suddenly.
There can also be side effects to consuming too much caffeine, such as jitteriness, anxiety, nervousness, increased blood pressure, heart palpitations, difficulty sleeping, irritability, tension, and even exacerbated panic attacks.
To minimize these side effects, most health experts say that you should not exceed 3 mg of caffeine per pound of body weight or about 6 mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight per day.
Additionally, one of the other potential downsides of coffee is that depending on how you prepare and enjoy your favorite cup, you may be getting a lot of excess sugar, fat, and/or artificial sweeteners.
Although black coffee contains essentially a negligible number of calories, once you start adding sugar, cream, milk, flavored syrups, and in the case of bulletproof coffee, grass-fed butter, and MCT oil, the caloric content and sugar and fat content can increase significantly.
Depending on how much coffee you drink and exactly what type and how much sugar and fat you are adding to the coffee, drinking these types of coffee drinks every day can contribute to weight gain and other adverse health effects.
If you do want to drink coffee every day, consider paring back on added sugars and cream and minimizing the number of artificial sweeteners you use as well, as these types of non-caloric sweeteners have also been associated with deleterious health effects and the metabolic impacts of these chemicals are not yet fully understood.
What about drinking coffee before exercising? Is this helpful in improving workout performance? Let’s take a look at our article, Coffee Vs. Pre-Workout: What’s The Best Before Exercise?
Coffee drinking can reduce uric acid.