Beware of this not-so-sweet side effect of coffee

You’ve been hearing a lot about the health benefits of coffee lately — like that it can protect your neurological health, ward off liver cancer and help you live a longer life.

But there’s an unintended side effect of drinking coffee that you may not have noticed even though it’s definitely happened to you…

It’s a side effect that can take a serious toll on your health if you’re not careful, so you’ll want to keep it in mind whenever you get your daily caffeine fix…

Caffeine causes your sweet tooth to spiral out of control.

Coffee’s sugary side effect

Now, everyone knows that sweets taste better with coffee and coffee tastes better with sweets. To say that they’re a winning combination would be an understatement.

But the reason why may surprise you…

Researchers from Cornell University recently found that the caffeine in coffee makes you perceive food differently… especially sweets.

More specifically, coffee makes sugar taste less sweet, which makes it easier to gulp down sugary snacks in massive quantities.

In the study, researchers found that people who drank sweetened coffee with caffeine thought it tasted less sweet than people who drank the same sweetened coffee without caffeine. And researchers believe they know why…

Caffeine suppresses your body’s adenosine receptors, which relax you and make you feel sleepy. That’s why coffee makes you alert and energized. Suppressing these receptors, however, also decreases your ability to taste sweetness, which, oddly enough, makes you want sweets even more.

Related: Caffeine may reduce post-operative pain

Now, enjoying a pastry and cup of coffee every once in a while is one of life’s great pleasures. But if you’re doing it daily, it’s probably having a detrimental effect on your health….

Eating tons of sugar, after all, is practically a death sentence. It contributes to high blood sugar and insulin resistance, which are driving factors behind serious diseases like type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even cancer.

Drinking coffee without the sweets

So, what can you do to get the health benefits of coffee without succumbing to your sweet tooth?

Well, you can start by taking steps to curb your sugar cravings altogether. If you’ve ever cut back on sugar in the past, you know that the less you eat, the less you crave it. In fact, when you cut sugar out for a while, then you start eating it again, you’ll find treats you used to enjoy taste sickeningly sweet. So it may be beneficial to cut sugar out completely, at least for a couple of days, to reset your body’s sugar tolerance.

You should also try to keep your blood sugar balanced. The peaks and valleys of out-of-whack blood sugar can make you crave the sweet stuff hardcore. To keep your blood sugar levels stable, avoid sweets, refined carbohydrates and eat plenty of healthy fats and protein.

You can also divert your attention when a sugar craving strikes. When you feel tempted to eat something sweet, distract yourself. Go for a walk. Chew a piece of gum (preferably one sweetened with xylitol). Or go run some errands. Do something productive that doesn’t involve a rendezvous with a sugary treat.

Once you curb your sugar cravings, you’ll realize that there are a lot of other, healthier foods that taste dang good with a cup of Joe too, like:

• A banana
• Yogurt
• Granola
• Whole grain toast and your favorite fruit
• Oatmeal

Now, I’m under no illusion that bananas, other fruits and granola are sugar free, but they’re definitely a lot healthier than a donut, Danish or coffee cake. So eat up and enjoy! And save your donut and coffee for a special occasion, like vacation, Christmas morning or a lazy Sunday morning when you’ve been denying your sweet tooth for far too long!

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