Most people can’t begin their day without a cup of coffee. However, there’s a growing rift among coffee drinkers. The split boils down to one question: Do you drink warm-brewed coffee or cold-brew? Although most people think of hot coffee as traditional and cold served coffee as more modern, did you know that the original iced coffee was first served in Algeria in the year 1840, but invented by the French military. It was a little different than today’s cold cup of joe, with ingredients of cold water and coffee syrup, but nevertheless cold brew is much older than most think! To think that one of the world’s most popular drinks came from soldiers who ran out of milk and wanted their coffee cold to help with the heat is quite a tall tale.
For those who prefer this chillier variety, you may be surprised to know that there are a few health benefits of drinking your preferred choice. Coffee comes with a lot of health hysteria whether it is hot or cold, but the way you decide to brew your beans can make a difference in those effects. Below you can read a little more about them!
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Wait, what’s cold brew?
First off, what is cold brew coffee and what makes it different from warm brew? Warm brew involves the process of using hot water. The heated water helps bring out the flavor of the beans. Cold-brew, on the other hand, takes a longer time to make. The beans have to sit in cold water for anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. The water becomes flavored through this form of steeping. As a benefit, the taste is less bitter than coffee that is warm brewed.
While warm brew coffee carries its own batch of unique health benefits, cold brew has been shown to offer a few health benefits of its own. Some of them are the same as hot coffee while some ar e unique to cold-brew, here’s a longer look at some of them:
Boost In Your Metabolism
Your metabolism plays an important role in burning calories and making you feel energetic. It’s responsible for turning food into energy. Cold-brew has been shown to help boost your metabolism. For those with slower metabolisms or who are overweight, boosting your metabolism can be a great benefit.
You’ll burn more calories simply by drinking coffee. You’ll also feel more energetic, you may be more inclined to exercise and do other energetic activities that can further help you lose weight. This effect happens to be the same as it with hot coffee, which shouldn’t be a shock since caffeine is arguably the world’s most popular legal drug. Getting revved up on hot or cold coffee can get your wheels turning and calories burning!
Improve Your Mood
Did you know that cold brews may also improve your mood? Those who drank cold-brewed coffee regularly had a lower chance of suffering from depression. For those who are sleep-deprived, your mood is already likely going to be sour. Because cold brews can make you feel more alert and awake, and can actually kick your brain activity, you’ll feel a lot better about facing your day even without a full night of rest. Now, don’t set yourself up by failure with sleep and caffeine intake by drinking lots of coffee at night, this is a dangerous pattern that one could fall into. You can’t solve one issue by doubling down on the other, but a wake-up cup of cold brew can certainly put a smile on your face.
Besides improving your mood, it may also help with your focus and attention. Those who drank cold coffee were able to react to objects a lot faster. Those who don’t tend to find coffee making them jittery can also benefit from a so-called laser focus thanks to their daily bean water intake.
Lower Risk of Heart Disease
For those with high cholesterol and high blood pressure, heart disease is a very real fear. Luckily, drinking cold-brewed coffee might help lower the risk of heart disease.
Some of the components in coffee beans like caffeine, magnesium, phenolic compounds, lignans, and others can actually help increase your insulin sensitivity. In response, this can lower blood pressure and keep your blood sugar stable. Considering the number of people around the globe who can suffer from these ailments, knowing your daily coffee is aid is great news!
In addition, it has chlorogenic acids that act as anti-inflammatories and antioxidants. This is more common in “green coffee” which is lesser-known and used but still popular. Articles like this one on WebMD can teach you much more about it.
Lower Risk of Type-2 Diabetes
Because it can help with insulin sensitivity, it might also help lower the risk of developing Type-2 diabetes. In a time when diabetes is on the rise, it’s important to do what you can to avoid developing the disease. For most people, this means stabilizing their blood sugar. Drinking cold brew coffee can help with that. This is also due to the chlorogenic acids that exist in the beans as we mentioned one paragraph above.
Easier to Digest Than Hot Coffee
A lot of people avoid drinking hot coffee because it results in acid reflux. Hot coffee is acidic and can give people heartburn. Cold brew coffee is less acidic and thus easier on your stomach and body. It also contains carbohydrates that help gut bacteria and their immunity. The next few times you have a coffee try and notice this because the difference is very strong in the acidity between the two temperatures. Some avid hot coffee drinkers may not even know what sort of relief their stomach would be in for by switching full-time, or even a few mornings per week, to a cold cup of joe.
