Achieve Weight Loss and Increase Recuperation with Coffee

Next time you pull into Starbucks, keep in mind that choosing the right roast could boost your metabolism. That’s right— according to the newest research in the Journal of Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, dark roast has more beneficial effects than light roast coffee on antioxidant levels, and also results in greater weight loss.

 Researchers gave either dark roast or light roast coffee to 30 study participants for 12 weeks, and measured blood and urine samples of the coffee-drinking subjects. The same coffee bean was used for each group; the only difference was the brewing time. For the first intervention period, light roast conditions were applied (260 degrees Celsius, two minutes) and for the second intervention period, dark roast conditions were applied (260 degrees Celsius, five minutes).

 At the end of the study, the subjects drinking dark roast had reduced energy intake and greater antioxidant levels of vitamin E and glutathione. It could be that the dark roast, which used longer brewing time, is able to extract more polyphenols out of the coffee bean than a light roast. So the next time you reach for a coffee, make it a dark roast!

 Reference:

 Kotyczka C, Boettler U, Lang R, Stiebitz H, Bytof G, Lantz I, Hofmann T, Marko D, Somoza V. Dark roast coffee is more effective than light roast coffee in reducing body weight, and in restoring red blood cell vitamin E and glutathione concentrations in healthy volunteers. Mol Nutr Food Res, 2011 Aug 2.

It Gets Better for Coffee Drinkers:

 Chronic Caffeine Intake Enhances Muscle Recuperation

                Acute caffeine consumption has a wide range of performance-enhancing effects attributed to central and peripheral mechanisms. Caffeine has been associated with central nervous system stimulation, delayed fatigue onset and increased contraction force of skeletal and cardiac muscles— leading to improved performance. Caffeine intake appears to improve muscle performance during a single bout of exercise. Little is known about the chronic effects of caffeine, as there are not many long-term studies.

 Researchers from Brazil took rats and put caffeine in their drinking water, and had them perform exercise— this would be equivalent to drinking coffee all day long! The rats exercised five days a week for about 40 minutes a day, and were divided into caffeine junkies and rats with no caffeine and exercise. The rats’ right leg muscles and fat content were weighed and the muscles were submitted to measure markers of inflammation. Training and caffeine did not change body or muscle weight, food and liquid intake or serum calcium levels among the groups.

 Decreased fat tissue was observed in the leg of the muscle of the rats consuming high caffeine, compared to the “no caffeine” group. The caffeine-consuming rats had lower levels of inflammation and muscle damage in the leg muscle compared to the caffeine-free group.

 Chronic caffeine intake has protective effects on skeletal muscle of trained rats. The protective effect of caffeine may be related to its anti-inflammatory effects.

 The results suggest that chronic intake of caffeine as well as chronic low-intensity exercise decreased muscle damage and inflammatory infiltration into skeletal muscle. More reasons to drink coffee all day long!

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