Do you have a daily ritual of starting off with coffee? You may well know that caffeine gives a kick of energy and focus, helping you get through the day. Did you also know that choosing organic coffee delivers even more benefits to your health and wellbeing?
Here are 5 research-proven ways organic coffee can boost your health:
More Antioxidants to Fight Damage by Free Radicals
Polyphenols are antioxidant compounds found abundantly in coffee beans. They act as free-radical scavengers in your body, protecting your cells from oxidative damage.
These are free radicals, which your body produces anyway but also gets more of from an unhealthy diet, stress and environmental pollution.
Having too many free radicals floating around causes cell damage – and damage to your cells promotes ageing. Cellular damage is also a marker of chronic disease, including cancer, heart disease and dementia.
Antioxidants scavenge for free radicals, effectively neutralizing them. The bigger your cache of antioxidants, the safer your cells will be.
Several studies have found that organic coffee has much more polyphenols and antioxidants on average: one put the difference at 37% more in organic beans.
Why such a disparity?
The coffee trees themselves produce polyphenols as a natural defense against stressors, including insects, disease and the sun. Organic coffees grown without synthetic chemical protection tend to be much higher in polyphenols because of the added stress.
By choosing organic coffee, you'll get far more cell-protecting antioxidants with each delicious cup!
Avoid Toxic Pesticide Residues Linked to Chronic Illness
Conventional java is grown using synthetic pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers, all of which leave behind residues on the beans.
When you ingest a regularly consumed substance such as non-organic coffee beans, you submit to eating trace amounts of the chemicals applied during growing. Regular, toxic exposure can accumulate and weaken your health.
For instance, the organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos increases the risk of Parkinson’s disease, while other chemical residues associated with conventional coffee improve the risk of cardiovascular disease, reproductive problems, cancer and more.
Organic beans are grown 100% without synthetic chemicals. You eliminate this source of toxic exposure from your diet by choosing organic. It’s cleaner. And much, much safer.
Healthier Soil Leads to More Nutritious Beans
Coffee beans will be the healthiest and taste the best if the trees that produce them grow in optimized soil conditions: high soil nutrients, highly diverse microbes.
But over time, the synthetic chemicals in the system used in conventional, industrial coffee farming – including herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers and fungicides – degrade soil health, destroying topsoil structure, nutrients and microbes.
In contrast to this, on organic farms there is a constant effort to continue to improve soil health by adding compost and cover crops as well as other regenerative practices. This leads to more biologically active soil with stronger, healthier coffee trees.
This results in cherries rich in protective polyphenols and even more nutrients. Healthy soil equals healthier beans!
Lower Risk of Dangerous Mold Contamination
Coffee is easily contaminated by mold. If plants get too wet at the wrong time during growth or processing, then.
This mold produces toxins called mycotoxins; and apparently some of the people who were eating those beans have been sick. Blame coffee mold toxins for cancer, liver damage, GI issues and more.
Artificial mold inhibitors, however, are off limits for organic farming, and so there is lower risk of dangerous mold growth closely tied to the organic cultivation of coffee.
Choosing organic coffee is the safest bet against this hidden health threat.
More Sustainable and Ethical Growing Practices
Organic coffee ensures sustainable and social benefits. Consumers funds go to those who actually deserve it instead of massive corporations. Furthermore, synthetic chemicals that go into the production process spoil the local ecosystems in the area killing wildlife and poor people living there.
And conventional farming practices undermine soil health over time, threatening long-term food security.