8 Life-Changing Benefits of Coffee From 9 Key Scientific Studies

Science says coffee is really, really good for you. For one thing, coffee can make you healthier. A study published in Circulation found coffee can reduce the risk of stroke by 20 percent. A meta-analysis of over 125 studies published in the Annual Review of Nutrition found that coffee can reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 30 percent, the risk of Parkinson’s disease by 30 percent, and the risk of cancer by up to 20 percent.

Coffee can also keep you trimmer. A study published in the Journal of Functional Foods indicates caffeine can slow the weight gain from an obesogenic diet—”obesogenic” is a fancy way of saying “likely to make you gain weight”—by reducing the storage of lipids in fat cells and the production of triglycerides. Coffee can even help counteract some of the negative health consequences of sitting all day, according to a study just published in BMC Journal. (My Inc. colleague Jessica Stillman has more on that here.)

Coffee can also make you happier. A study of over 260,000 people published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that people who drank four or more cups of coffee a day were nearly 10 percent less likely to become depressed than those who drank none.

Coffee can also (say hello to Captain Obvious) kick-start your day. The caffeine in your first cup of coffee attaches to the part of your neurons that normally attracts adenosine, the hormone that makes you sleepy. Caffeine also causes those neurons to fire more rapidly. Combine adenosine-blocked receptors with heightened neuron stimulation, and boom: You’re perkier.