Coffee is delicious in a double sense: 5 benefits of coffee at work

Many people can probably sign that a working day is not a working day until the first pitcher is brewed and the first cup is brewed. Or that a lunch is not lunch, but the associated coffee on the food. Or that a pause is not complete without the word coffee being added before the first syllable. Yes, it is not news that we Swedes like to drink coffee. A lot of coffee. But how much is very?

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How much coffee will we drink in Sweden in 2023?

According to world population review In Sweden, we consume about 8.2 kilos of coffee per person per year, which corresponds to about three cups per day. That puts us in sixth place on the list of the most coffee-drinking countries in the world. First on the list we find our neighbors in the east, Finland who consume about 12 kg per person. Between us and Finland we find Norway, Iceland, Denmark and the Netherlands.

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But enough with statistics, let's look at the benefits of drinking coffee, and why we should drink coffee at work.

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5 reasons to drink coffee at work

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1. Coffee increases energy levels

Coffee, or more specifically the caffeine contained in coffee, is perhaps best known as an energy boost. By drinking coffee, you can get that extra kick that is sometimes needed to tackle tasks efficiently. The stimulating effect on the brain can also help improve your concentration. A study in the journal Psychopharmacology found that caffeine increased attention and concentration in subjects who performed tasks that required concentration and accuracy. The researchers also noted that caffeine reduced the risk of the people in the study making mistakes.

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2. Coffee improves your mood

Coffee can also have a positive impact on your mood, which can make you feel more motivated and engaged at work. For example, a study from the Harvard School of Public Health found that women who drank four or more cups of coffee per day had a lower risk of depression compared to those who drank no coffee at all. Another study from the University of Washington found that caffeine could help reduce anxiety levels. At the same time, both studies point out that coffee should not be seen as some miracle drink against depression or anxiety, but that there are indications that caffeine can have a positive effect on mood for some people.

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3. Coffee promotes social interactions positive work environments

Coffee can act as a sort of social lubricant and can be seen as a catalyst for social socializing. We all know how nice it can be to take a break from work and end up with a cup of coffee and how it can contribute to a more positive work environment. In fact, another study, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, that examined the link between caffeine and social interaction in the workplace found that the people who drank coffee at work reported higher levels of social interaction than those who did not drink coffee. Another study, published in the journal Occupational Medicine, found that workplaces that provided free coffee had a higher rate of staff satisfaction and lower staff turnover compared to workplaces that did not. So a cup of coffee is, as we all know, so much more than just a drink — it can even be part of the puzzle of fostering social interactions and creating positive work environments.

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4. Coffee may reduce the risk of disease

Coffee has been shown to have several health benefits. A comprehensive study in the journal Circulation found that moderate coffee drinking was linked to a lower risk of heart disease. Another study found that regular coffee drinking was linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

So you can drink yourself healthy? Well, unfortunately, it's not quite that simple. But coffee drinking can at least be one of all the other ways that you can stay healthy.

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5. Coffee can improve your creativity

Coffee can also help boost creativity, which can be especially useful at work. For example, the study “Cognitive enhancement through caffeine: A systematic review and meta-analysis” (2017) mentions that caffeine can, among other things, increase attention, responsiveness, improve working memory, and help increase creativity. This can, of course, quite self-explanatory, increase your productivity and efficiency at work.

Finally, perhaps it is worth pointing out again that caffeine can have different effects on different people and that the relationships described in the studies are not very linear. In other words, you cannot (unfortunately) increase the effects by drinking more cups of coffee, but too much caffeine can instead knock over and have negative negative effects on health. So we say as they usually say at the end of the commercials: drink responsibly.

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Sources:

Buelow, M. T., et al. (2017). Influence of office coffee service participation on daily coffee consumption and alertness. Occupational Medicine, 67 (7), 535-541.

Broderick, P., Benjamin, A. B., & Lafranchise, C. (2005). Caffeine and psychiatric symptoms: a review. Journal of Okla State Med Assoc, 98 (12), 538-542.

Ding, M., et al. (2015). Association of coffee consumption with total and cause-specific mortality in three large prospective cohorts. Circulation, 132 (24), 2305-2315.

Gunter, M. J., et al. (2017). Coffee drinking and mortality in 10 European countries: A multinational cohort study. Annals of Internal Medicine, 167 (4), 236-247.

Hameleers, P. A. G., Van Boxtel, G. J. M., & Hogervorst, E. J. (2017). Cognitive enhancement through caffeine: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 80, 1-12

Haskell, C. F., Kennedy, D. O., Wesnes, K. A., & Scholey, A. B. (2005). Cognitive and mood improvements of caffeine in habitual consumers and habitual non-consumers of caffeine. Psychopharmacology, 179 (4).

Lucas, M., Mirzaei, F., O'Reilly, E. J., Pan, A., Willett, W. C., & Okereke, O. I. (2011). Coffee, caffeine, and risk of depression among women. Archives of internal medicine, 171 (17), 1571-1578.

Myers, E. A., et al. (2017). The relationship between caffeine consumption and social interaction in a non-clinical population. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 31 (4), 473-481.