Name: Elissa Afram El Boustany Date: 16/03/2019

Topic: The Benefits of Coffee

General Purpose: To persuade

Specific Purpose: At the end of my speech, the audience will agree to engage in drinking coffee
moderately due to its benefits.

Introduction

Attention Getter: “According to the latest coffee statistics from the International Coffee
Organization, about 1.4 billion cups of coffee are poured worldwide every 24 hours” (ICO,
2018). That’s a lot of coffee, and about 45% of those who drink it, feel guilty about it (ICO,
2018). The only thing anyone should feel guilty about is the sugary supplements added to coffee.
The latter, as an entity by itself, has become so important recently, that I am here today to explain
to you how drinking a cup or two a day is not only okay, but recommended.

Introduce the Topic & Credibility Statement: Coffee beans are plant-based and enriched with
a massive number of antioxidants, that include both hydro-cinnamic acids and polyphenols, as
well as some other nutrients (Aguiar, Estevinho & Santos, 2016). All these constituents are what
make coffee good for one’s health.
I have always wanted to elaborate on this topic, mainly because ever since I started drinking
coffee, almost every person around me tried to make me stop.

Central Idea: Even though many nutritionists and doctors advise against drinking coffee
believing that it has an addictive feature, recent studies have shown that the right amount coffee
not only improves one’s physical health, but also their mental health.

Preview the Main Points: First, I will describe how the constituents of coffee are beneficial on a
bodily level. Second, I will examine their effects on the brain. Finally, I will consider the
different perspective on coffee.

 As a side note, it should be mentioned that all the effects that are going to be discussed are a
result of moderate drinking of unsweetened coffee; as nothing in excess is good.

Body
Argument 1: First, let’s discuss the numerous benefits that coffee has on one’s corporeal health.

- To start with, coffee is believed to reduce the risk of different types of cancer.
. After several studies conducted in the Far East as well as in European countries, it was
proven that coffee decreases the risk of colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer and
prostate cancer (Kitamura et al., 2017).
- In addition, drinking coffee can prevent the emergence of a selected number of diseases
. Regular consumption of coffee increases different hormones which in turn affect a
person’s insulin sensitivity; this is proven to prevent the risk of type 2 diabetes, which is a
very common disease especially as one grows older (“What Is It About Coffee?”,2012)
- Lastly, some of the constituents of coffee affect the skeletal muscle positively.
. Dirks-Naylor (2015), stated that drinking coffee moderately can quicken the
regeneration of injured muscles.

Argument 2: Now that I have talked about how it affects the body physically, I will discuss how
a reasonable amount of coffee has a huge impact on the brain of the drinker.

- To begin with, coffee improves the brain function in general.

. The composition of coffee improves the alertness of a person which in turn improves the
performance of a job. Also, it leads to a decreased reaction time and faster information
processing (“The Health Benefits of Drinking Coffee”, 2010).
- Moreover, coffee reduces depression levels tremendously.
. A statistical analysis was done on the entire Korean population that resulted in a
conclusion that shows that coffee intake and depression are inversely related (Kim &
Kim, 2018).
. Another study showed that participants who drank at least two cups of coffee per day
showed a significantly lower risk of depression than participants who do not drink coffee
(Navarro et al., 2018).

 Despite all the above findings, there still remains a few skeptics; now,we look at the
opposing point of views.

Counter-Argument & Refutation:

Many health specialists direct against drinking coffee, whether moderately or extensively, as they
believe it is addictive.

- They believe coffee is a drug and will in turn result in drug-like symptoms and
withdrawal issues.

. Coffee contains a substance called caffeine that blocks the reabsorption of the pleasure
hormone “dopamine” (Fredholm, 2004).
. Sanders (2015) stated that coffee-drinkers are addicted to the pleasure they get from
drinking coffee and tend to drink it in huge amounts.
. People mistake caffeine dependency with addiction, but they are completely different; the
health effects are not the same.
- Caffeine dependence results after drinking vast amounts of coffee.
. Ogawa and Ueki (2007), found that this dependency will occur if one drinks more than
400 mg a day, which is equivalent to 5 cups of coffee. Moderate drinking ranges from 1
to 2 cups.

- Caffeine dependence has minimal withdrawal effects, and for those who want to avoid
this altogether, decaffeinated coffee contains almost the same physical health benefits as
normal coffee
. Stopping caffeine abruptly after drinking it extensively might result in drowsiness and a
headache at most (“Why Coffee Perks People Up”, 2012).

Conclusion

 To wrap it all up, it can be said that although some believe that certain chemicals in
coffee can result in addiction, drinking a few cups a day can improve both the physical
and mental health of the drinker.
 Coffee is the most suitable beverage to indulge in moderately, without falling into its
pitfalls.
 Gain all its benefits and drink coffee now! It only takes a couple of unsweetened cups per
day

References
Aguiar, J., Estevinho, B. N., & Santos, L. (2016). Microencapsulation of natural antioxidants for
food application – the specific case of coffee antioxidants – A review. Trends in Food
Science & Technology, 58, 21-39. doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2016.10.012

Dirks-Naylor, A. J. (2015). The benefits of coffee on skeletal muscle. Life Sciences, 143, 182-
186. doi:10.1016/j.lfs.2015.11.005

Fredholm, B. B. (2004). Connection between caffeine, adenosine receptors and dopamine. coffee
reduces the risk of parkinson disease. Lakartidningen, 101(34), 2552.

Kim, J., & Kim, J. (2018). Green tea, coffee, and caffeine consumption are inversely associated
with self-report lifetime depression in the Korean population. Nutrients, 10(9), 1201.
doi:10.3390/nu10091201

Navarro, A. M., Abasheva, D., Martínez-González, M. Á., Ruiz-Estigarribia, L., Martín-Calvo,

N., Sánchez-Villegas, A., & Toledo, E. (2018). Coffee consumption and the risk of
depression in a middle-aged cohort: The SUN project. Nutrients, 10(9), 1333.
doi:10.3390/nu10091333

OGAWA, N., & UEKI, H. (2007). Clinical importance of caffeine dependence and abuse.
Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 61(3), 263-268. doi:10.1111/j.1440-
1819.2007.01652.x

Sado, J., Kitamura, T., Kitamura, Y., Sobue, T., Nishino, Y., Tanaka, H., . . . the Three-Prefecture
Cohort Study Group. (2017). Association between coffee consumption and all‐sites
cancer incidence and mortality. Cancer Science, 108(10), 2079-2087.
doi:10.1111/cas.13328

Statistics Table. (2018, October). Retrieved March 6, 2019, from http://www.ico.org

The health benefits of drinking coffee; novel ideas know coffee offers you health benefits. (2010,
Sep 14). The Mountaineer Retrieved from https://search-proquest-
com.ezproxy.lau.edu.lb:2443/docview/751385233?accountid=27870

What is it about coffee? (2012). Harvard Health Letter, 37(3), 4–5. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=rzh&AN=104621869&site=ehost-live

Why coffee perks people up. (2012). Harvard Mental Health Letter, 28(9), 6. Retrieved from
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direct=true&db=hxh&AN=73961675&site=ehost-live