Kelly’s Corner – Ways To Make Your Coffee Healthy

In celebration of National Coffee Day, I was looking up coffee. Is it good for us? Is it bad? I found an article that says coffee is good for us and here's why.

• Coffee is full of antioxidants. For many people, coffee is the single largest source of antioxidants in the diet, believe it or not, outranking fruits and veggies.
• Enjoy your caffiene before 2 pm. It gives us an energy boost, thus the reason we crave it in the morning. If you drink coffee too late in the day, it can interrupt our sleep, which can cause all kinds of other problems.
• Drink your coffee black. The best way to turn your coffee into a really bad beverage, is to load it down with sugar. If you absolutely HAVE to have sweetener in your coffee, use STEVIA.
• Organic coffee is always better. So just like organic foods are better for you, the better the coffee. Coffee beans are often sprayed with pesticides that were never meant for human consumpton.
• Cinnamon?  Yes Cinnamon! Adding a little of this spice gives coffee a tasty flavor and cinnamon also lowers blood glucose, cholesterol and tryglycerides in diabetics.
• Avoid low fat and artificial creamers. Consider adding full fat cream from grass fed cows. Studies show that high fat dairy products actually help reduce risk of obesity.
• Try adding a little organic unsweetened cocoa to your coffee. It's loaded with antioxidants and is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease.
• Always use a paper filter. Brewed coffee can actually contain diterpenes, which can actually raise  cholesterol levels in the blood. BUT! If you use a paper filter, it gets rid of all of the diterpenes, and lets the caffiene and beneficial antioxidants pass through.

I've heard a lot of people say they hate their coffee without creamer or sugars. But once people get used to it, paper filtered with no additives, black coffee is the best.