Dr. Rhonda Patrick

You get these benefits from the polyphenols if you drink the coffee later in the day.

So you can actually choose decaf to avoid interfering with your sleep quality.

So in short, early caffeine intake seems to really align well with biological rhythms.

It enhances cognitive performance during the day, protects against cardiovascular disease, and it maximizes coffee's powerful longevity benefits.

But you don't want to continuously keep drinking it all throughout the day.

Coffee also has powerful effects on metabolism, particularly the body's ability to regulate glucose and fat utilization.

Regular coffee drinking, especially around two to three cups per day, consistently reduces the risk of developing metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

In fact, studies show that drinking two to three cups of coffee daily can cut diabetes risk by as much as 60%.

But why does coffee have such a profound metabolic benefit?

One reason appears to be its ability to activate AMP kinase or AMPK for short.

This is a central metabolic regulator inside of our cells.

It's activated when we're in a fasted state, in a caloric deficit, after intense exercise or metabolic stress.

Compounds in coffee like caffeine and the chlorogenic acids can actually flip that AMPK switch on.

And that controls how our cells process energy, how it manages glucose levels, and how our cells handle fats.

When AMP kinase turns on, it tells the cell to burn fat, take up glucose, shut down growth pathways like mTOR.

So by boosting AMP kinase activity, coffee actually helps the body become more efficient at using energy and maintaining healthier blood sugar levels.

Chronic mild AMPK activation is a leading explanation, but it's not the only one.

Improved gut microbiome composition, reduced inflammation, enhanced fat oxidation also play roles as well.

There's a bit of a twist here because coffee can acutely raise fasting blood glucose in some individuals and may slightly decrease insulin sensitivity in the short term, largely via acute sympathetic activation.

But the overall long-term effect is protective.