Perks Of The Percolator

Here Are 4 Health Reasons to Stick With Your Caffeine Routine.

One cup or two, straight up or with a shot of espresso, dark roast or light hazelnut laced with almond milk — we love coffee in the United States. And we take to tea, too; 80% of Americans consume caffeine — an average of 200 milligrams — every day. But does your body really benefit from all those beans? The short answer is yes. We looked into just a few of the latest studies to brew up some good news.

THE BUZZ: CAFFEINE GIVES YOUR BRAIN A BOOST.

THE BOTTOM LINE: A 2014 study published in Nature Neuroscience and conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that drinking coffee or tea can indeed enhance your memory. “We report for the first time a specific effect of caffeine on reducing forgetting over 24 hours,” said the paper’s senior author, Michael Yassa, in a press release. He observed how, for study participants, consuming caffeine after studying a series of images helped them better remember those images later. A 2016 study, however, also found that if you’re short on sleep, you’re less likely to feel the brain-boosting effects of caffeine. After three days of restricting sleep to five hours per night, participants in the 48-person study group felt reduced effects of two daily 200-milligram doses of caffeine.