It's a coffee thing #3

Add a sprinkle of cinnamon to your coffee.

For people who like a little bit of sweetness in their coffee but want 

to avoid adding sugar, a sprinkle of cinnamon or cocoa powder can be a 

great solution, and according to Prof Spector, they bring their own 

health benefits. 

Both cinnamon and cocoa are exceptionally rich in their own unique 

polyphenols, he says, effectively doubling the gut-feeding potential 

of your coffee. 

In our [Zoe’s] food composition database, cinnamon ranks among the 

richest polyphenol sources, gram-for-gram. 

Cocoa contains flavanols, which have well-studied benefits for vascular health. 

Either makes a much healthier addition than highly processed sugar-rich 

foods syrups.

Lenherr agrees: “Cinnamon is a wonderful thing to add to coffee. 

But be aware that a lot of the cinnamon in coffee shops is sweetened 

with a bit of sugar.”

Drink it in the morning.

Everyone responds differently to caffeine. 

But for most of us, it’s best to consume it only in the morning, to make 

sure we get good quality sleep at night. 

“Drinking coffee before noon prevents caffeine from disrupting sleep 

quality hours later,” says Prof Spector, “and sleep is a primary driver 

of good metabolic and overall health.”

A 2025 study found that people who drink coffee before noon are 16 per 

cent less likely to die in the following 10 years than those who don’t 

drink coffee at all. 

However, individuals who consume coffee throughout the day do not 

experience a reduction in mortality risk.

“Morning is the best time to drink coffee,” says Lenherr, “because it 

aligns with your circadian rhythm, where your cortisol is naturally 

elevated, and the caffeine in the coffee can increase that cortisol 

response. 

It’s very individual: some people can drink a double espresso before 

bed, and it doesn’t affect their sleep, but that’s rare.”

Thank you for reading.

Tim.