 Alright, coffee is known for its incredible health benefits all around the world and it's something I drink every single day. First of all, coffee drinkers around the world have some of the longest health spans and life spans and have some of the best brain health and it's all because of the polyphenol content in coffee. Now I don't have to hopefully tell you about polyphenols but polyphenols are these amazing plant compounds that have two really important effects. Number one, we've recently learned in the last few years that our gut bacteria, our microbiome, loves to eat polyphenols. So polyphenols are a prebiotic that feeds friendly bacteria. Number two, we have known for some time that polyphenols by themselves are very poorly absorbed. Now long ago it was felt that polyphenols are antioxidant, in fact that is not true. But polyphenols are our mitochondrial uncouplers. An uncoupling mitochondria actually protects mitochondria from damage, number one. And number two stimulates mitochondria to make more mitochondria, which is called mitogenesis. And actually number three allows mitochondria to waste energy to do a caloric bypass. So study after study shows that coffee consumption actually improves microbiome diversity, it actually makes more and more different bacteria in your gut. And it's because of the richness of the polyphenols. So it's an impressive and easy way to give your microbiome foods that they need. Now once you have the microbiome eating the polyphenols, then they manufacture compounds from those polyphenols that you can absorb. And when you absorb those compounds, they go to work in uncoupling your mitochondria. Study after study of people who drink coffee, particularly really polyphenol rich coffee, they have much better brain health. Why? Because the polyphenols actually help uncouple the neurons in your brain keeping them healthy. Now fun fact, which really is strange, the lighter the roast of the coffee, the more polyphenols are present. The darker the roast of coffee, the less polyphenols are present. Even though it tastes stronger and richer, the darker the roast, the more the polyphenols are destroyed. So easy thing to remember, roast your coffee either light or medium if you want polyphenols. Stay away from the dark roast. That's actually damaging the polyphenol. The other thing that's remarkable that you'll learn in my upcoming book, Gut Check, is that the longer the coffee grounds are exposed to the water, the more polyphenols are extracted. So strangely enough, boiled coffee, like Greek or Turkish coffee, has a much higher polyphenol content than other forms of brewing coffee. Now I'm not saying to go out and boil your coffee all day. But we have to learn from these super healthy, long-lived cultures that perhaps they're on to something and they were on to something because the polyphenol content was increased the longer the grounds were in contact with the water. Fun fact. Now, coffee can actually raise your catecholamines. Now most people think that catecholamines, like adrenaline, like epinephrine, is bad for you that you don't want catecholamines. Well in fact, catecholamines are a very important part of our communication system, hormonal system to make your heart and your brain actually work better. Now when I need to get the most heart function out of a patient with a lousy heart, believe it or not, I give them intravenous forms of catecholamines. And sure enough, study after study, including some of my studies, show that these dramatically improve heart function. So why wouldn't I want to give my heart a nice boost of function particularly early in the morning or when I need some get up and go? Now a lot of people say, yeah, yeah, yeah, but coffee increases your cortisol levels and cortisol is really bad for you and cortisol makes you gain weight. I'm sorry that is one of the greatest inner myths out there. There is no relationship with cortisol and weight gain. Yes, there is relationship between giving someone cortisol, hydrocortisone as a drug and weight gain, but that has nothing to do with endogenous cortisol production. And the amount that you get from a cup of coffee will do nothing to promote weight gain. Now, it is true that drinking unfiltered coffee in general will raise your LDL. And many physicians say, oh my gosh, if you're going to have coffee, the last thing you want to do is have boiled coffee or percolated coffee or espresso, because your LDL will go up. And that for the most part is true. Now it turns out that a paper filter will absorb some of the oils in coffee that actually raise LDL. So if you're really concerned about LDL, then use a paper filter. And please don't use a white paper filter, use an unbleached one. But one of the great myths of heart disease that I've been fighting against for 40 years now is that LDL, per se, contributes to the development of heart disease. Now if you like the cholesterol theory of heart disease, and it is a theory, and I don't particularly like it, but if you like it and that's okay, then LDL has to be oxidized. It has to be rusty or rancid. It has to be activated to produce plaque. If it's not oxidized, I'm sorry, it's not going to contribute to plaque formation. Now it turns out, and I've published this, the more polyphenols you have in your system, including from coffee, the less your LDL oxidizes, and the less sticky your blood vessels are. And you've got to have sticky blood vessels to have LDL, which would be activated, stick to your blood vessels. So if you don't have sticky blood vessels from eating or drinking lots of polyphenols, then you don't have to worry about that LDL. So we don't need to focus on our LDL. We need to focus on not oxidizing our LDL, and that's exactly what coffee consumption does. Now one note I will make, don't have your coffee after dinner, even decaf. In some parts of the world this is very common, but it can not only lead to stomach problems, but coffee, even decaf coffee, will relax what's called the lower esophageal sphincter. It's a trap door between your swallowing tube and your stomach. And coffee, and believe it or not chocolate, relaxes that sphincter. So that if you have a big meal and then follow it up with a cup of coffee and maybe a chocolate, you might be one of those vulnerable persons who's going to get reflux when they go to bed. Now the good news is, if you follow my advice and don't eat, finish eating three hours before you go to bed, then that point is moot. But most people have that late night dinner, late night coffee, even decaf, and maybe a piece of chocolate, and they're suffering for several hours after the night. Now it's true in many people that coffee consumption does temporarily raise blood sugar. The good news is, you can add cinnamon to your coffee, like the Viennese, like Viennese coffee, or add allulose. Allulose as you know is a non-nutritive sweetener, which feeds friendly bacteria and lowers blood sugar. So I use allulose in my coffee and I'm not doing it to make it sweet. I'm doing it to blood the sugar effect and feed my gut bacteria. Last but certainly not least, please, please, please do not add cream or real sugar to your coffee or milk for that matter. You will cancel out all the amazing benefits of what we've just talked about. You do not want to add milk to your coffee. If you have to do it, take a tip from the Italians who make a little foam and have a espresso macchiato with just a little topping of foam rather than having a latte or even a cappuccino. And please, please, please don't have one of these flavored coffee drinks thinking you're going to get any benefit from the coffee. You're going to get a four or five hundred calorie sugar bomb that will have absolutely no benefit from what you think you're getting. So if you really want to have it sweet and creamy, use unsweetened coconut milk, or many of the MCT creamers that are available out there. They'll be perfectly fine. You'll get the creaminess and the texture you want, but you'll get the benefits that you want from coffee. So enjoy your coffee, just enjoy it the right way, and you're going to have some amazing health benefits that the world has known about since coffee was discovered. Four amazing episodes just like this one. Watch now. The teacum is loaded with folate, iron, and magnesium and potassium. Magnesium and potassium are two of the vitamins that most people are really profoundly deficient in.