From staples like burning fat and providing energy boosts to unexpected perks such as extending your life and protecting you from diseases, coffee is the gift that just keeps on giving. But that doesn’t mean you have to settle for the plethora of natural health-bonuses that already come with that cup of coffee you order from your favorite shop or brew up in your kitchen each morning.
Here are a few other suggestions for ways that you can take an already healthy beverage and crank the health factor up to eleven.
1. Remember, Less is More
While there are plenty of ways to accentuate that steaming hot cup of java in order to increase its health benefits, perhaps it’s better to start with a “less is more” mentality.
If you want healthier coffee, start by cutting out the creams and sugars. Not only will this improve your body’s health, but avoiding that sugar will also help your smile stay sparkly fresh.
2. Consider Quantities
You may not want to hear this, but it is important to put a limit both on how much coffee you drink each day and when you drink it.
Now, before you start sweating bullets at the thought, this isn’t a call to cut your coffee consumption down to a half a cup each morning.
Instead, simply try not to drink more than four cups of coffee per day, avoid drinking coffee too late in the day (generally try to quit around mid-afternoon), and try to drink each cup of coffee slowly.
3. Source Your Beans Properly
Along with quantities, consider the quality of your coffee. Poor quality coffee may be cheap, but it’s often grown in unhealthy and even unsavory ways. Look for quality brands that offer:
If your beans are of a high quality, the health benefits of each cuppa will be so as well.
4. Try Broccoli Coffee
One way to increase the health of your coffee is to literally infuse it with veggies. Broccoli coffee is an easy way to add some extra nutrition to your coffee.
Simply purchase some broccoli powder, mix it in, and hope that the resulting flavor is one that you can enjoy as much as that steaming cuppa all on its own — okay, we all know it won’t be quite as enjoyable, but as long as it’s decent, it provides a chance to substitute that side of veggies for a coffee-based alternative.
5. Make a Bullet Proof
Bulletproof coffee is a great way to include healthy ingredients like grass-fed butter and MCT oil into your morning routine.
Not only are these healthy, but they can help get your brain going each day, and all while contributing to a delicious A.M. beverage.
6. Include Healthy Flavors
There are many extremely healthy ingredients that can be added to coffee in the name of both health and taste:
All of these can accentuate your coffee’s flavor profile while simultaneously adding to its health benefits.
7. Add Some CBD Oil
CBD oil is an extremely popular health tool at the moment, and it can do its work right in your coffee cup. Whether you’re trying to combat seasonal depression, you’re minimizing pain symptoms, or you’re fighting flu symptoms, there are plenty of reasons to include a dose of CBD oil in your morning coffee.
8. Use Eggshells
If you love your coffee, but you can’t stand that acidity, consider adding some eggshells into your brewing method. Simply adding eggshells in with your grounds can dramatically reduce the acidity of a pot of coffee — and if you’re camping, it can be a great way to get the grounds to sink to the bottom of the coffee, as well.
9. Consider Your Food Intake
If you’re on a diet, it’s important to consider how your coffee will affect things. For instance, if you’re eating significantly less food, you may need to cut down on your coffee (and by extension caffeine) intake as well. However, unless it’s a very specific diet (and one approved by your doctor) there’s typically no need to cut out coffee entirely.
In fact, if you’re following a fad diet and you’re told to abandon coffee altogether, make very sure that it’s your coffee and not the diet that you should be abandoning. As a general rule of thumb, as long as you carefully consider your diet and possibly tweak the way you prepare your coffee to accommodate it, you should be good to go.
10. Socialize as You Partake
Finally, one of the hidden health gems, when it comes to coffee, is the simple fact of socializing as you drink. Getting coffee is an enormously popular social activity, and it’s one that shouldn’t be avoided.
If you’re going to get a cup of coffee, consider doing it with a friend ...or two, or three. Engaging in good conversation, laughing, and even crying as you ingest your java is a great way to increase the health benefits already inherent in the coffee by simply adding the equally important health benefits of socializing into the mix.
Finding Ways to Maximize Your Coffee Health
Whether you’re adding cinnamon to your cuppa, socializing at a Starbucks, or trying out a wild cup of broccoli coffee, there are many different ways that you can increase your coffee’s health properties simply by the way that you prepare and partake in each cup ‘a joe.
However, it’s important to remember that you’re not masking an unhealthy drink with healthy positives. You’re emphasizing the already present healthiness of your coffee by adding in extra levels of health in one form or another.
If you can do this on a regular basis, you’ll be able to increase your health all while still enjoying each cup of coffee along your journey.
