Our relationship with coffee is complicated. Some people say they can't get up in the morning without it. Other people believe it's practically deadly. When it comes to coffee, there are a lot of pros and cons.

Here are the pros, summed up: Coffee can be good for your body and your mind. The caffeine in coffee—the chemical that wakes you up—might help prevent diabetes and Alzheimer's disease in the long term. In the short term, caffeine can improve mental performance and help with breathing problems. Coffee is also full of a kind of vitamin which protects the cells in your body. Other vitamins in it can help stop signs of aging and even some cancers. In tests, coffee has also been shown to prevent Parkinson's disease, kidney stones, and liver problems.

What could be bad about a drink like that? Well, on the flip side, coffee seems to cause or contribute to a lot of other diseases. It can raise cholesterol in the body, and it's not good for your blood circulation. Coffee, as you have probably seen, can make you excited and nervous. It raises people's heart rates and, sometimes, blood pressure, which is dangerous. It also may cause you to lose water and feel thirsty. It may be bad for your bones, especially for women. There are even some studies that connect drinking coffee with heart disease.

So how can you decide if you should drink coffee? Consider your own circumstances. If you have a bad heart or high blood pressure, stay away from it. However, if you need to be sharp and you want to prevent some other diseases later in life, a cup of coffee in the morning probably won't hurt.

我們和咖啡之間的關係很複雜。有些人說，早上沒咖啡就無法清醒，有些人則認為咖啡簡直是致命的。一講到咖啡就會有很多正面和負面的看法。

總結一下，下列是咖啡的好處：咖啡對你的身心都有益。咖啡裡讓你保持清醒的化學物質咖啡因，長久下來可防範糖尿病和阿茲海默症。短期而言，咖啡因可增進腦力且改善呼吸問題。咖啡富含一種可以保護身體細胞的維他命。其中的維他命可以延緩老化徵兆，甚至預防某些癌症。實驗中也證實咖啡可預防帕金森氏症、腎結石，和肝臟問題。

像這樣的飲品怎麼可能有壞處呢？這個嘛，換個角度來看，咖啡似乎會引起或導致很多其他的疾病。它可能會增加身體膽固醇，而對你的血液循環也不好。你大概也知道咖啡會讓你興奮緊張。喝咖啡會使人心跳加速，有時候還會讓血壓升高，這些都是危險的。咖啡也可能讓你脫水、感到口渴，也可能危害骨骼，女性的骨骼尤其容易被影響。有些研究更指出咖啡和心臟病息息相關。

那麼，你要怎麼決定是否該喝咖啡呢？這就要考慮你自身的狀況了。如果你的心臟不好或有高血壓，那就不要喝。然而，如果你需要保持清醒或是想要預防一些未來可能發生的疾病，那麼在早上喝杯咖啡應該也無妨。