Three reasons to love coffee

Fred Pawle
JUNE 09, 2015
THE AUSTRALIAN
Are you just about to order your morning flat white, or perhaps contemplating your second?
Here are three reasons why coffee is good for you.
1. It will stave off depression. Portuguese and Brazilian biochemists have uncovered the molecular mechanisms that help caffeine shield the chronically stressed from mood disorders, according to this story in The Australian. In a study of mice, the team, which also included researchers from Germany, Oman and the US, found caffeine prevented a stress-related chemical from triggering changes in the brain. Co-author Rodrigo Cunha said this suggested compounds in caffeine were behind its protective effect. “(The research) provides a causal demonstration of previous studies showing an ­inverse correlation between caffeine intake and incidence of ­depression,” said Professor Cunha, a neuroscientist with the University of Coimbra in Port­ugal. “This implies that regular coffee or tea consumers should be less prone to mood alterations in stressful conditions.”
2. If you buy the right beans, you are helping some of the world’s poorest farmers. Hugh Jackman’s latest film, Dukale’s Dream, is a documentary about Fair Trade coffee growers, and the dramatic effect the business is having in Ethiopia. “I do not want things to be given to me. I want to develop [them myself],” one of the farmers says in the film.
3. It can improve a man’s love life. A recent study in the US found that men who drink two or three coffees a day are 42 per cent less likely to experience difficulties in their amorous activities. The study concluded that “caffeine triggers a series of pharmacological effects” that enable the men to enjoy a healthy sex life.