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    Coffee: So Good for You, Really

    By | Shine Food – Tue, Dec 21, 2010 4:59 PM EST

    Want to wake up in the morning and jump into your day without first making a stop at the coffee pot?

    Why?

    Seriously, why?

    Evey few months or so, a little trend goes around of people quitting caffeine or dropping their coffee habit. Leaving aside the pregnant and the ones suffering from high blood pressure, who have some valid health reasons for quitting, it just makes no sense to do anything of the kind.

    More From The Stir: Kids & Coffee: A Good Combination?

    And no, that's not the delicious nonfat latte I just downed talking: caffeine has some serious health benefits. And I for one am tired of people slamming it! It's delicious productivity juice and you should embrace the buzz, not reject it out of fear you're harming your health.

    Besides its benefits in helping you keep up with your kids and/or your job, it can lower your risk for heart attack, stroke, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and liver cancer. And if you take your caffeine in the form of sweet, sweet coffee, you'll get a big dose of antioxidants with it. An 8 ounce cup of black coffee has only about 7 calories, and adding a little milk or half and half and sugar still tops it out at less than 100 calories a cup.

    More From The Stir: Your Caffeine Addiction Could be Good For You

    Some people believe the stimulant effect of coffee helps you lose weight, also; it either boosts your metabolism, saps your hunger, or you just makes you zoom around so much you burn calories.

    Stories like this one, offering ways to get going without caffeine, are just irritating. Sure, rub your face with a rough, wet cloth, eat a good breakfast, and turn down the heat if that makes you happy. But no one should feel guilty about the fact the sweetest sound of the morning is the whir of the coffee pot starting.


    Image via Ian Hughes(epredator)/Flickr

    Written by Amy Kuras for CafeMom's blog, The Stir.

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