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Argh, I need coffee! If this is a sentence you speak often, then you must read on to find out if is coffee anti-inflammatory to take care of your health.
There are varied opinions from everybody when it comes to coffee consumption. On one hand, people are addicted to it for many reasons, from simple likeness to the aroma of coffee to the need to maintain their lifestyle.
Others are becoming conscious of their consumption due to debates like whether is coffee anti-inflammatory1 and are trying to cut it out or lower with decaf.
Is Coffee Anti-Inflammatory?
Due to its popularity, there are many myths about coffee of which some are true and some aren’t. One of many rumours is that coffee is inflammatory.
This article answers your query about is coffee anti-inflammatory and backs the conclusion with scientific evidence.
1. What Does Inflammation Mean?
Before delving into is coffee anti-inflammatory, let’s discuss inflammation first. Inflammation happens when any foreign body enters and our immune system2 recognizes them as foreign.
Our immune system is then on guard to fight these foreign bodies which can be anything like any chemical or an invading microbe which can happen through something as small as bug bites. The protection causes inflammation which shows how our body is trying to keep us healthy.
The problem occurs when we experience inflammation for a longer period even when there are no invading species present.
This is called SCI 3(systematic chronic inflammation) which can happen through many reasons like your diet or lifestyle.
There are even chronic inflammation cases which often lead to chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, depression, Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular disease 4or neurological diseases.
Even as a protector, this is where inflammation becomes a threat to us. It can cause many issues like infections, pain, digestive issues and fatigue.
So, is coffee anti-inflammatory? As people are going conscious of inflammation, many are also trying to follow an anti-inflammatory diet which is a natural way to a healthy lifestyle and also to combat the problem of inflammation.
When people look for anti-inflammatory properties in food to include in their diet, they hardly know whether to include or exclude coffee.
Being a popular beverage, it has become so common that people make their diets and not count the number of consumed coffee cups in the list, so here are certain facts that might help you make a conscious decision regarding health benefits.
2. How can you Reduce Inflammation?
Now that you know if is coffee anti-inflammatory, comes the next step. There are some ways which have been found helpful by people in fighting inflammation. It includes- following a diet and eating anti-inflammatory foods like whole grains, green leafy vegetables, fatty fish and fruits.
You can go on the diet depending on your inflammation level or simply follow it because of the health benefits. Another way is to exercise more, get enough rest and stress less.
Although it might be difficult to follow every step in your lifestyle you can start slowly and even following one of these steps can boost your health.
3. More About Coffee
3.1 Compounds in Coffee:
Regular coffee has active compounds such as psychoactive drugs like caffeine (this is why people get addicted to it), CGA 5or chlorogenic acid, kahweol and cafestol.
Unknown to many, even a decaf had all these compounds except less to no caffeine as the name suggests.
According to some studies, it is due to these compounds except caffeine, that drinking coffee helps in reducing illnesses like heart disease and some types of cancer or diabetes.
3.2 Advantages of Coffee:
Everything has its pros and cons and so is the case of coffee. Everyone knows that regular coffee consumption leads to addiction and can harm health if not stopped. But this is an extreme case.
When things are done within a boundary, they have advantages. Coffee can help you to fight depression and by increasing metabolism, it can help you in dealing with weight gain. Coffee also helps in being active.
Although no rest is similar to that of sleep, given the lifestyle in today’s time where sleep disturbance is often, coffee can help with our productivity needs by keeping us active.
4. Is Coffee Anti-Inflammatory or Causes Inflammation?
A study concluded that people who regularly drink coffee were less likely to have inflammation rather than ones who don’t consume coffee.
In another study, researchers found that people having coffee daily had 8-16% less inflammation when asked if they could have 32 or 64 ounces of coffee every day.
Another review study that reviewed 15 studies about the effects of coffee and its compounds concluded that coffee intake does have anti-inflammatory effects.
Another study that reviewed 8 studies concluded that certain compounds present in coffee, it does reduce inflammation. A systematic review in 2016 said that coffee increases metabolism which affects our inflammation level.
American Cancer Society suggests that coffee reduced the risk of liver, prostate and breast cancer.
Contrary to the above conclusions, certain works concluded the opposite, coffee does increase inflammation.
Studies suggest that coffee increases inflammation, but also there were other factors included for inflammation like genetics6.
The increase in inflammation if drinking coffee can also be the result of the high acid levels in the stomach which varies from person to person so even if there is less scientific evidence to prove that coffee causes inflammation.
Some people might experience it and need to cut out caffeine consumption or talk to their doctor as there are alternatives like low acidic coffees.
But as it goes, everybody is different.
5. Coffee, Decaf, and Inflammation:
One review study found that caffeinated coffee might be the reason why coffee generally has anti-inflammatory effects.
The only difference between decaf coffee and regular coffee is that decaf causes low to no caffeine intake, else the compounds are similar and so does its effects on inflammation.
Although decaf coffee has low caffeine, constant consumption does lead to an increase in the effects of caffeine so in the long run, it can be compared with regular coffee and you can have withdrawal symptoms when you try to stop having decaf as well.
Hence there isn’t more research in this sector so it is difficult to conclude if decaf does not affect inflammation.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can caffeine make inflammation worse?
Coffee decreases low-grade inflammation and prevents long-term illnesses through a variety of mechanisms independent of caffeine.
2. Why is coffee bad for inflammation?
Caffeine, irrespective of your preference for it, can raise cortisol levels. Cortisol is naturally anti-inflammatory, but excessive amounts can have a reverse impact, leading to chronic inflammation.
3. Does one cup of coffee cause inflammation?
Even little doses of coffee may help lessen inflammation. As a result, you may be less likely to develop certain disorders, such as diabetes type 2, cardiovascular diseases, and possibly even particular kinds of cancer as mentioned above in the article.
Bottomline
So the bottom line is that there have been studies on both sides of the result of coffee on inflammation. Given the facts and studies, it is easier to conclude that coffee has anti-inflammatory properties.
Still, as said above, there can be cases of inflammation due to genetics and this is why you need to keep connected with your doctor, given the facts you can easily include coffee in your anti-inflammatory diet.
- Zappavigna, Silvia, et al. “Anti-inflammatory drugs as anticancer agents.” International journal of molecular sciences 21.7 (2020): 2605. ↩︎
- Sompayrac, Lauren M. How the immune system works. John Wiley & Sons, 2022. ↩︎
- Anjum, Anam, et al. “Spinal cord injury: pathophysiology, multimolecular interactions, and underlying recovery mechanisms.” International journal of molecular sciences 21.20 (2020): 7533. ↩︎
- Townsend, Nick, et al. “Epidemiology of cardiovascular disease in Europe.” Nature Reviews Cardiology 19.2 (2022): 133-143. ↩︎
- Mennai, Imad, et al. “Chemical composition and antioxidant, antiparasitic, cytotoxicity and antimicrobial potential of the Algerian Limonium oleifolium mill. Essential oil and organic extracts.” Chemistry & Biodiversity 18.9 (2021): e2100278. ↩︎
- Loos, Ruth JF, and Giles SH Yeo. “The genetics of obesity: from discovery to biology.” Nature Reviews Genetics 23.2 (2022): 120-133. ↩︎
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