Coffee is a huge part of the American lifestyle, and has lately been the subject of exciting health research. Scientists are just beginning to understand the health benefits of coffee.
New research from the University of George shows that coffee may improve endurance during exercise.
To investigate the benefits of coffee, Simon Higgins, a third-year doctoral student in kinesiology in the College of Education and his team reviewed over 600 scholarly articles. The team screened the articles for those that focused on caffeinated-coffee conditions, and compared the results to exercise endurance.
“Previous research has focused on caffeine itself as an aid to improve endurance,” Higgins said. “Coffee is a popular source of caffeine, so this paper looked at the research surrounding its ergogenic benefits.”
Higgins found that between 3 and 7 milligrams per kilogram of body weight of caffeine from coffee increased endurance during exercise by an average of 24 percent.
[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”#228B22″ class=”” size=”17″]“This is helpful for athletes because coffee is a naturally occurring compound,” Higgins said. “There’s the potential that getting your caffeine by drinking coffee has similar endurance benefits as taking caffeine pills.”[/pullquote]During his research, Higgins found that caffeine from coffee enhances physical performance. He also believes that more research is needed to determine whether coffee consumption or the caffeine in coffee provides the benefits.
“While there is a lack of high-quality research on coffee as a source of caffeine, there is an abundance of research on pure caffeine,” he said. “It’s surprising how little we know about caffeine from coffee when its endurance effects could be just as beneficial as pure caffeine.”
The study showing that coffee may improve endurance during exercise was published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.
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REFERENCES:
1. “Coffee Might Improve Your Endurance during Exercise.” Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, n.d. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.
2. “Coffee May Improve Athletic Endurance Performance.” Newswise. University of Georgia, n.d. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.
3. “The Effects of Pre-Exercise Caffeinated-Coffee Ingestion on Endurance Performance: An Evidence-Based Review.” National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.
