Let's face it, coffee is basically a source of life for many. In fact, as I write this I'm enjoying a good cigar with a giant mug of freshly brewed coffee. Today's post is going to be super sweet and simple. My hope is to get your brain moving a little and if you're already part of the elite 54 then this should be encouraging.

If you don’t drink coffee and you really don’t have a good reason, then I’m hoping to widen your perspective on this delicious beverage. But before I start, if you're still thinking about the "elite 54" and have no idea what that is (even if you do drink coffee), don't worry because I just made that name up. There's nothing elite about this number except that it explains our addiction. The number 54 represents the percentage of people over the age of 18 who drink coffee in this country every day!

Simply put, coffee is amazing. And this is why...

1. BE A BETTER ATHLETE

If you are training (that is correct, I did not say “working out”), then coffee can help to improve your performance.

Michael Duncan from the University of Exeter in England said (and I freakin' love this), “essentially, we found that with the caffeinated drink, the person felt more able to invest effort…”when testing the performance of athletes during training sessions. This means that athletes who did have caffeine in their system were not only able to focus more on their training, but increase their work capacity.

Additionally, the same study suggested that caffeine would also have a "striking effect on the central nervous system and on those parts of the brain involved in mood, alertness, and fine motor coordination during exercise." Furthermore and conclusively. caffeine increases fatty acids in the bloodstream which means burns those fats for fuel.

2. LESS STRESS

An article that was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry by the Seoul National University in South Korea showed that researchers tested labs rats who were sleep deprived to inhale the smell of coffee. Researchers then found that “some of the genes expressed in the coffee-sniffing, stressed rats expressed proteins that have healthful antioxidant properties known to protect nerve cells from stress related damage.”

Now, I wish to note that this is a study that was conducted under the stress of sleep deprivation. And while there are many variables that can lead to stress, this is simply one to further prove my argument for you to drink coffee.

3. COFFEE MAKES YOU SMARTER

If you don't already know, caffeine is a stimulant which means it helps you get stuff done. In other words, caffeine helps to improve neurons, alertness, and cognitive function. One of the first things people do in the morning is have a cup of coffee; part of the reasoning is so that stuff gets done.

4. COFFEE MAKES YOU HAPPY

A study conducted by the National Institute of Health reported that those who drank at least 4 cups of coffee a day were 10% less likely to be depressed than those who didn't. Additionally, the study surveyed other caffeinated drinks like coke, but they were unfortunately linked back to depression.

The moral of this post? DRINK COFFEE. Don’t wait for the New Year to “try” something different” and I promise you won’t turn into a hipster if you start drinking coffee. If you do, however, turn into a hipster it’ll be because you wanted to.

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