Can drinking coffee prevent cancer? Reveal the truth of the relationship between coffee and health

Core tip: nowadays, people generally recognize the health effects of coffee, but there are still many different opinions about coffee, which makes ordinary consumers feel at a loss as to what to do. Which of these health claims about coffee is true or false? Nippon Keizai Shimbun has written an article to uncover the health secrets of coffee.

In the past, coffee was once considered a drink that "increases the risk of cancer." when coffee was first studied in the 1960s, it was thought that the black and charred thing was likely to increase the risk of cancer. the practice of frying and roasting coffee beans was also questioned for a time.

With the in-depth study of coffee in the past 50 years, people's view of coffee is gradually changing. Nowadays, people generally recognize the health effects of coffee, but there are still many different opinions about coffee, which makes ordinary consumers feel at a loss as to what to do. Which of these health claims about coffee is true or false? Nippon Keizai Shimbun has written an article to uncover the health secrets of coffee.

Chlorogenic acid and caffeine in coffee attract attention

Researchers around the world have conducted a large-scale epidemiological survey of coffee. Yuyoko, a professor of medical research at the Graduate School of Hokkaido University in Japan, said that in a liver health follow-up survey of 110000 people, people who drank more than one cup of coffee a day had half the risk of dying from liver cancer as those who did not drink coffee. In addition, people who drank one or two cups of coffee a day had a 40 per cent lower risk of uterine cancer than those who drank coffee less than twice a week, according to a survey of 54000 people by the National Cancer Research Center of Japan.

In exploring the effects of ingredients in coffee on human health, chlorogenic acid and caffeine in coffee are considered to be the key ingredients affecting health. Caffeine has a protective effect on cells. Chlorogenic acid is a kind of polyphenols that can inhibit normal cell carcinogenesis. At the same time, coffee contains as many as 69 kinds of chlorogenic acid.

Coffee also has a preventive effect on type 2 diabetes caused by improper diet and lack of exercise, which has been determined by a worldwide research team led by the Netherlands. Although the specific prevention mechanism is still unclear, scientists generally believe that this is the result of chlorogenic acid inhibiting the rise of blood sugar and caffeine promoting basal metabolism.

At present, the preventive effect of coffee on diabetes has basically been scientifically determined, but in many other diseases, the health effect of coffee on human body is still being explored. At present, the effect of coffee on Alzheimer's disease and arteriosclerosis is still being studied.

Coffee and health, you should know the truth.

There are many theories about coffee, not only disease prevention, but also slimming, beauty and many other areas, are these statements really reliable and scientific? If you want to improve the health effect of coffee, should you also pay attention to skill when drinking it?

Theory 1: drinking coffee and exercising can help you lose weight (○)

In the experiment, Masuki Suzuki of Tokyo Tzu Hui Medical University found that people who jogged for 30 minutes after drinking coffee spent more energy than those who jogged for 30 minutes after drinking boiled water. He thought that the caffeine in coffee could stimulate the sympathetic nerve and promote the energy release of free fatty acids in the blood, which in turn consumes more energy. In aerobic exercise, fat is usually the main source of energy, and caffeine can promote fat burning efficiency. In addition, in mouse experiments, it was found that caffeine combined with exercise reduced internal fat by 60%.

Argument 2: dark coffee beans are healthier than light coffee beans (△)

Dark coffee beans look darker and more effective than light ones, but in fact, there is no relationship between caffeine content and roasting degree, and there is almost no difference between dark and light coffee beans.

From the point of view of the content of chlorogenic acid, the content of chlorogenic acid in raw beans is usually the most, which decreases with the increase of baking time, but there is no relationship between the intake of chlorogenic acid and the proportion of disease prevention. Chlorogenic acid can inhibit the increase of blood sugar value regardless of intake. Therefore, no matter how much coffee beans are roasted, there is no difference in health effects between different coffee beans.

Argument 3: coffee can prevent stroke (○)

According to a joint survey by the National Cancer Research Center of Japan and the JACC Institute, people who drink more than one cup of coffee a day have a lower risk of death from stroke than those who do not drink coffee. In addition, in a mouse experiment conducted by Professor Nobuya Goto, School of Medicine, Tokai University, Japan, it was found that coffee had an effect on the formation of thrombus, the main cause of stroke. It was found that after feeding three groups of mice with "water", "coffee" and "caffeine solvent" respectively, the mice that drank caffeine were more difficult to form thrombolytic lumps than those who drank caffeine. Although it is not clear whether this is the effect of caffeine, the role of coffee in preventing stroke has been confirmed in experiments.

Theory 4: drinking more coffee can prevent wrinkles (△)

After outdoor activities, the skin will form wrinkles under the influence of ultraviolet light, but the factor that affects the wrinkle formation process is reactive oxygen species. Reactive oxygen species will increase greatly under the action of ultraviolet rays, and cause damage to cells and promote the formation of melanin, which is the cause of wrinkles after exposure to the sun.

The substances that can fight reactive oxygen species are naturally antioxidants, and antioxidants have attracted much attention in recent years in terms of beauty and anti-aging, and the chlorogenic acid in coffee happens to be a kind of antioxidant. Some studies have shown that people who drink coffee have fewer wrinkles than those who do not drink coffee. However, because the study has not yet reached a definite conclusion of human body research, there are still many doubtful points, so this argument needs to be further studied and reconciled.

Statement 5: it is better to drink coffee after a meal (×)

When caffeine reaches the bloodstream, the effect of stimulating the sympathetic nerve usually begins half an hour after drinking. If you want to promote fat burning, you need to drink coffee at least half an hour before exercise starts. Drinking coffee in the morning can also improve the attention and efficiency of work and study.

But in terms of coffee drinking time, drinking coffee while eating is the right thing to do to prevent diabetes, because carbohydrates and chlorogenic acid are the most likely to inhibit the rise in blood sugar levels. In other words, when drinking coffee is most beneficial to your health depends on what kind of health effect you want coffee to have.

In short, coffee has many expected health effects, but in any case, coffee is only a kind of food, can never achieve the therapeutic effect of medicine, we should not expect too much of coffee. At the same time, the content of caffeine in coffee is about 3 times that in tea. Caffeine has good refreshing, heat-clearing and analgesic effects, and it will also stimulate a lot of gastric acid secretion. Excessive consumption of coffee will also have certain side effects on health. It is better to drink 1-2 cups a day, but the loss outweighs the gain.