Caffeine is one of the substances most studied by scientists to delimit its risks and benefits. An example of research that in recent years has fascinated coffee lovers? Those according to which drinking 3 to 5 cups a day protects against the risk of heart attack . Orders and counter-orders, popular traditions and false myths. Like the one according to which coffee is bad for the liver: wrong, it's quite the opposite .

A very interesting and fruitful field of investigation is the one concerning the relationship between coffee, eyes and sleep. Common wisdom has it that drinking coffee in the evening is not a good idea, especially for those who are prone to suffer from insomnia (which - it should be remembered here - can be fought by choosing the right foods ). Well, it is useful to know that the thesis that coffee causes insomnia is not supported by science. This sleep disorder has much deeper roots, and if the consumption of caffeine can be an influencing factor, it is not so much the time of consumption that matters, but the quality and quantity of the caffeine we consume.

If we suffer from insomnia, instead, coffee can come to our aid in a certain sense: caffeine in fact relieves fatigue of the eye muscle. This was highlighted by a New Zealand study, according to which caffeine helps to awaken the muscles of the eyes that are tired due to intense physical movement .

After an hour of cycling in the mountains, or a prolonged run, the eye muscles are affected by the effort as much as those of the legs or arms. And while the consumption of coffee is recommended to help the latter manage the peaks of fatigue, the researchers found that the same cup also helps to rebalance the tired eyes muscles.

A couple of years after the results of the Auckland researchers, another study recently published in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance (also promoted by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee) found that coffee, in moderate doses , is an ally of sport per se - and not just of the post-sport recovery.

The consumption of coffee would have a positive effect on performance during an endurance discipline , such as running : in particular, drinking coffee 45-60 minutes before a race of about 1 km and a half improves performance by about 2% - which seems little, but it is equivalent five precious seconds.

In fact, various studies have suggested that a moderate dose of caffeine, equivalent to about 3mg / kg of body weight, can improve endurance activities such as running, cycling and rowing, as well as endurance activities in the gym and sports. at intervals like football and rugby .

The caffeine saga will certainly not end there. However, remember that coffee is not just caffeine: among the most interesting properties on the front of physical well-being , there are also antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ones. While caffeine, a natural alkaloid present in the coffee plant, has other well-known properties on various fronts: it is a powerful digestive due to its effect on gastric production, it is a stimulant of cardiac activity, has lipolytic effects and therefore promotes weight loss , it also has anorectic effects (it often helps to reduce the feeling of hunger).