By SOLA OGUNDIPE

People really like coffee. The morning ritual of brewing a cup, the smell that perks you up before you take a sip and, of course, the flavor all make it the favorite beverage aside from water (water’s delicious!). We know that coffee is fine in moderation. It has lots of antioxidants and is low in calories if you don’t load it up with cream and sugar. There are always new reasons to take more coffee.

Moderate coffee drinkers (1 to 3 cups/day) have lower rates of stroke than noncoffee drinkers, an effect linked to coffee’s antioxidants. Coffee has more antioxidants per serving than blueberries, making it the biggest source of antioxidants.

All those antioxidants may help suppress the damaging effect of inflammation on arteries. Immediately after drinking it, coffee raises blood pressure and heart rate, but over the long term, it actually may lower blood pressure as coffee’s antioxidants activate nitric oxide, widening blood vessels.

The antioxidants (chlorogenic acid and quinides, specifically) play another role: boosting your cells’ sensitivity to insulin, which helps regulate blood sugar. In fact, people who drink four or more cups of coffee each day may have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Your liver loves it: It looks like the more coffee people drink, the lower their incidence of cirrhosis and other liver diseases. One analysis of nine studies found that every 2-cup increase in daily coffee intake reduced liver cancer risk by 43 percent. Again, it’s those antioxidants—chlorogenic and caffeic acids—and caffeine that might prevent liver inflammation and inhibit cancer cells.

Drinking between 1 and 5 cups a day (admittedly a big range) may help reduce risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as Parkinson’s disease, Antioxidants may ward off brain cell damage and help the neurotransmitters involved in cognitive function to work better.

Helps cope with headaches: Studies show that 200 milligrams of caffeine—about the amount in 16 ounces of brewed coffee—provides relief from headaches, including migraines.

Exactly how caffeine relieves headaches isn’t clear. But scientists do know that caffeine boosts the activity of brain cells, causing surrounding blood vessels to constrict.

One theory is that this constriction helps to relieve the pressure that causes the pain. However, this is not to say that coffee doesn’t have any pitfalls—it does.