4 health benefits of drinking the coffee in your MREs

Besides water, coffee is the most popular drink in the entire world. Countless people from around the globe wake up every morning to a beautiful cup of the brewed beverage and drink it to get that critical morning boost.

Now, when a service member is chilling out in the field and they rip open an MRE, there's a little pouch of coffee just begging for some hot water. Since that pouch doesn't look as appealing as that fruit-punch drink, we tend to chuck it back into the opened MRE bag, never to meet its hot-beverage destiny.

However, we're here to tell you why that's not the best option.

Coffee lowers your chances of developing four major medical issues

According to Dr. Michael Roizen, drinking coffee lowers your chances of developing Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, along with liver and ovarian cancer.

The board-certified anesthesiologist explains that those medical benefits come from the caffeine within the drink and polyphenols, a micronutrient found in the coffee plant that's packed with antioxidants.

Staying on your toes

When we first wake up, our brains typically aren't functioning as well as they do later in the day. Caffeine, the world's most popular psychoactive drug, tends to take over the adenosine receptors in the brain, which are responsible for making you feel tired.

Now, when you're feeling tired on post, drink that MRE coffee and block those sleepy receptors. The health benefit here comes with not falling asleep getting killed while you're on watch.

That's huge.

Filter that instant coffee

Now, we know what you're thinking, why would I filter instant coffee? Sounds stupid, right? Coffee contains over 1,000 compounds and some of those can elevate your cholesterol.

To help get the benefits without any of the drawbacks, pour instant coffee through a paper filter or a clean t-shirt. This will separate those cholesterol-raising compounds from the good stuff.

Drinking coffee can also reduce your chances of developing type 2 diabetes. That's also f*cking huge.

It boosts your metabolism

Since caffeine is a stimulant, it raises all sorts of levels in your body, like blood pressure and heart rate. Because of that, your metabolism jumps and burns more calories to meet your body's rising energy needs. Now, don't think that drinking a lot of coffee will solve your love-handle problem — it won't — but it will give you some extra energy while you're in the gym.