Now that we know of all that coffee can do for our health (read about it here!), it’s time to figure out how to ramp up those health benefits.
On it’s own, coffee is packed with health-boosting benefits, but it’s the additions that get stirred into your daily cup of joe that can be hampering your health.
Find out what you might be adding to your morning caffeine fix that is harming your health and what small changes you can do to make your coffee even healthier for you.
7 Ways To Make Your Coffee Healthier
1. Brew your own at home
Not only will you end up saving yourself plenty of money, but brewing your own coffee at home allows you to control exactly what goes into it.
While you may be planning to only get a freshly brewed cup of coffee from your favorite coffee shop, the temptations of other coffee drinks may become too much to bear once you arrive.
Just a 16 ounce Cinnamon Dolce Frappuccino from Starbucks has over 380 calories, 14 grams of fat and 58 grams of sugar. That is not a healthy way to start your morning!
Stick to brewing your own coffee at home and avoid the temptations of added calories, fat and sugar.
If you find yourself stopping by a coffee shop due to a lack of time in the morning, look into investing in a single-cup coffee brewing system.
Set it up the night before and simply push a button in the morning to brew yourself a healthy cup of coffee.
2. Buy organic beans
Coffee beans are one of the most pesticide and chemically treated foods available. If you drink coffee, especially on a daily basis or several times a day, buying organically grown coffee beans will ensure that you are not being effected by these toxic chemicals.
The strict standards that must be met in order to gain an organic certification mean that you can be sure you are purchasing only the purest coffee.
3. Use filtered water
Since coffee is bascailly 98% water, you want to make sure that the water you are using is the cleanest possible.
Using filtered water ensures you will avoid unwanted toxins such as arsenic, lead and even mercury that can be found in tap water.
To reduce your exposure to these toxins, simply install a filter on your sink, buy filtered water to use for your coffee or invest in a built-in-filter watering system.
Certain coffee machines such as the Keurig also offer filters in their water bin to ensure proper filtration.
Clean water means not only healthier coffee, but also tastier coffee as it reduces the amount of chlorine that can make it into your cup.
4. Skip the sugar
If you’ve never tried a cup of coffee black, you should give it a go.
Sugar adds unwanted calories to your morning cup, and if you are consuming more than one cup of coffee per day your consumption of sugar may reach dangerous levels.
This of course, is only in regards to your coffee consumption. A diet rich in sugar can lead to not only obesity, but also diabetes.
If plain black coffee still isn’t your thing, there are other all-natural sweeteners that can be used to sweeten your coffee instead of sugar.
Try raw honey or stevia to sweeten your morning coffee and skip the white sugar!
5. Avoid artificial creamers
Though the flavors may sound delicious, artifical creamers are highly processed and full of unnatural, harmful ingredients.
These products will likely include high fructose corn syrup as well as dangerous trans fats. Instead of these artificial creamers, consider full fat cream from grass-fed cows.
Recent studies have revealed that consuming full fat products from grass-fed cows may actually reduce the risk of obesity as well as help to improve heart health.
You can also make your own delicious creamers at home with almond milk, soy milk, or coconut milk combined with extracts and all-natural sweeteners.
6. Add a superfood boost
Give your cup of coffee a superfood boost by blending in coconut oil. An incredible superfood, adding coconut oil to your coffee can provide benefits such as increased metabolism to increased energy and focus.
Though rich in saturated fats, coconut oil is made up of medium chain fatty acids which means that they are processed by the liver immediately. This results in immediate availability of energy for the brain.
A simple teaspoon or two of coconut oil blended with coffee results in a creamy, frothy drink that can rival any coffee shop latte. Add cacao powder and stevia for an even richer treat.
7. Use a filter
Even organic coffee has its imperfections. When brewed, coffee releases harmful substances known as diterpenes, which can raise bad cholesterol levels.
Thankfully, these diterpenes are easily removed through a coffee filter. Brewing coffee with a paper filter prevents the diterpenes from ever reaching your mug, however it still allows all the healthy antioxidants and caffeine to pass through.
Conclusion
Coffee can be a health-boosting part of any lifestyle, however there are several things you can do to make your morning habit even healthier.
Avoiding coffee additions such as cream and sugar limits the amount of unwanted fat and sugar you are consuming while also leaving room for healthier additions such as coconut oil and raw honey.
Don’t ruin your healthy morning coffee habit by drowning it in added chemicals and artifical ingredients. Brew your own at home and sip on all of the incredible health benefits that coffee has to offer!
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