Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

Face the reality. This is the meaning of “wake up and smell the coffee”. 

We are drinking coffee in everyday life and so many of us are addicted to this beverage.  What do you know about the actual fact of it? People drink coffee when you want to calm down or wake up. Is it really working? These days there are people drinking coffee to lose their weight. Does coffee have such effect? When I was younger, my friends said to me that I drink coffee too much that you got so tan! What is true and what is forth?

According to recent research, coffee is now said to be not a bad beverage to drink. However, it is a common impression of coffee that it is bad for stomach and other parts of body. Although a low quality one would brings you stomachache or something else but the normal or high quality one is totally harmless. The image of the coffee might be came from how it looks as a black beverage or they actually drink bad quality one and got a stomachache. When you pick right coffee beans it would not happen. I would like to post about how to choose a good coffee soon after.

       First surprising fact is that 99% of coffee is water. It includes protein and fat but they are so less. In a good side, you do not have to care about calorie since it is almost water. But the other side, you can get almost no nutrition from it.

       And this is a big question still exist, could coffee be medicine? It actually has been used as medicine since it was discovered. So what can it do to you? To answer this question, you need to know about caffeine.

Caffeine is a central nervous stimulant and can have some positive effects on the human body. Caffeine in low doses is thought to be associated with an improvement in sporting performance, increased alertness and reduction in fatigue potentially lifting a person’s mood. Coffee and tea also contain some antioxidants that have positive effects on heart health.

However, increased amounts of caffeine lead to dependency due to increased tolerance and hence the need for greater amounts to gain the same stimulatory benefits. Heavy users who have to go without can experience withdrawal symptoms such as headaches and fatigue. Too much caffeine can produce restlessness, nausea, sleep difficulties, upset stomach, increased urine production causing dehydration, and cardiac arrhythmias. It has also been associated with elevated blood pressure in sensitive persons.

       These effects of coffee can be both good and bad for you depending on how ado you drink. You have to stop saying, “Coffee is harmless at all so I can drink 10 cups a day!”, “Coffee does nothing but causing illness so you better stop drinking.”, nor any state which is extreme. And wake up and smell the coffee.

Reference

Cafe Goju. (2009, Feburuary 28). Kohi no koka[the effects of coffee]. Retrieved from http://www.cafegoju.com/coffee/coffee_02.html

Eigo no Kyoshitu. (2007, February 25). 「wake up and smell coffee.」wa dou iu imi de sho?　[what does "wake up and smell the coffee" mean?]. Retrieved from http://englishclass.blog49.fc2.com/blog-entry-153.html