Black coffee is often thought to contain zero calories, but contrary to popular belief, it does contain a small amount of calories.
A standard-sized cup of black coffee contains 5 to 10 calories and no fat. But if you add extras like sugar, milk, or creamer to coffee, you also add extra calories. For instance, one teaspoon of sugar has 16 calories, and 1 oz of milk contains 30-40 calories.
But even with that small amount of calories, we feel energized after having a cup of black coffee.
Does Coffee Give You Energy?
Coffee is mainly associated with boosting the metabolism and energy level of the body. But the question arises how does coffee give you energy?
Black Coffee doesn’t contain a lot of calories. It’s actually the caffeine in coffee that provides you with a sense of relaxation and boosts the body’s metabolism.
After drinking coffee, we feel energized; it doesn’t impact the overall energy level of our body but is a temporary effect on our brain receptors.
According to macrobiotic nutrients, coffee is a superfood with a high amount of available antioxidants. It contains caffeine which acts as a realistic simulator for boosting energy levels.
The studies of Coffee’s impact on the body were carried out on various individuals of different regions. Studies reveal summarized by famous nutritionist Dr. Sood.According to him
“Coffee provides mild stimulating effects of your body and alerts you. It doesn’t provide you with many calories. Caffeine is a fat-soluble chemical affecting your brain cell.”
Caffeine acts as a stimulant, giving you a boost of energy. Caffeine doesn’t actually provide more physical energy, rather it increases the body’s ability to utilize body fat as a source of energy.
Also Read: How many calories in shot of Espresso
What is Caffeine?
Caffeine is a drug that provides energy to our body by stimulating the activity of the brain’s nervous system. Many drinks contain caffeine such as tea, coffee, soft drinks, and Energy Drinks. Particularly energy drinks have a lot of caffeine.
What does caffeine Do to our body
- It increases the rate of metabolism of the body fat and gives an instant energy boost.
- It blocks the receptor of the body that makes you feel tired
- Increase the blood circulation and heartbeat
- Increase cardiac output
- Reduce the feeling of pain and discomfort
- It also causes dependency
Caffeine is the natural stimulant and main ingredient of coffee – it provides your body energy and helps in keeping your brain active.
Read More: How to make coffee less bitter?
How caffeine provides you energy?
After you drink coffee, caffeine in coffee is absorbed into your bloodstream and travels to your brain cell.
In the brain, caffeine acts as the inhibitory neurotransmitter adenosine. As a result, the number of other neurotransmitters like norepinephrine and dopamine increases which acts as a simulator in boosting your metabolism and the sensation of energy.
Caffeine acts as a signal blocker in the brain responsible for giving you a feeling of sleep or fatigue. It tends to increase blood circulation and blood pressure levels of the body. These sudden changes in the body cause the stomach to do extra work.
That’s why sleep in our eyes goes away after having a cup of coffee.
After that, the digestion process starts, and brain cells force the body to convert the fat into energy. Drinking coffee with sugar will convert the sugar into energy because that’s the fastest conversion a body can make rather than consuming the fat layers in the stomach wall.
Why does coffee have zero calories?
A cup of black coffee has very little amount of calories. That’s because it only contains coffee beans and water.
As we know there are no calories in water but there are some calories present in the coffee beans that come up with oil. There is not too much oil in the coffee beans, and most of the extracted chemicals don’t contain any calories, so there are not many calories.
Approximately on average, there are about five calories in a single plain brewed cup of coffee.
But when we add creamers, sugars, and milk to coffee to prepare different types of drinks like cappuccino or Latte we are actually adding a lot of calories to our drink.
- A teaspoon of sugar has 16 calories
- 1 oz of normal milk has 35 to 40 calories
- 1 oz of fat-free milk has 10 to 12 calories
- 1 oz of whipped cream has 90 to 100 calories
So, if you are health conscious person (you should be!) then you should measure the amount of calories before adding them to your coffee.
A side effect of overdosing on coffee
Although coffee has many benefits but we all know the famous proverb “Excess of everything is bad” so does apply to coffee.
Coffee contains caffeine and caffeine certainly has many side effects when consumed in excess.
Too much caffeine can cause anxiety, trouble sleeping (insomnia), issues in digestion, muscle breakdown, high blood pressure, rapid heart rate, fatigue, frequent urination, and addiction.
These side effects also depend on the genes of a person. Some may face severe side effects while others are completely safe from any of these dangers.
You should conduct an honest assessment of your sleep, energy levels, and other factors that might be affected by caffeine, and reduce your intake if necessary.
Final Thought
Coffee does not have many calories but it contains caffeine which boosts your energy levels.
Caffeine acts as a simulator. It doesn’t have energy at all. It temporarily stimulates the brain cells to convert more fats to energy.
Other Interesting Articles:
- When was the Coffee maker invented
- why do perfume shops have coffee beans
- 25 Countries that drink the most coffee
- Top 5 countries with the best coffee
