Moshi — THE Director General of Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB), Engineer Adolph Kumburu, has encouraged Tanzanians to aggressively drink coffee to raise the current national rate, which is at seven per cent of the annual output.

He said apart from refreshing and stimulating bodies of coffee consumers, coffee provide incomparable health benefits since it already is the beverage of choice that "we so love to sip". TCB boss mentioned top five health benefits of drinking coffee to include that coffee lowers effects of liver damage, as the drink provide the liver with necessary protection if one have had a few too many the night before.

"Coffee drinkers, who also imbibe in alcohol have been known to have a lower risk of cirrhosis to the liver," according to Eng Kumburu, adding that coffee drinking also increases happiness, according to a study carried out by John Hopkins.

He said Mr Hopkins' study showed that daily coffee drinking will add to ones' overall happiness because of the amounts of dopamine that are being pumped into ones bloodstream but cautioned coffee drinkers to keep their dosage under two cups per day lest they face the risk for higher anxiety.

"What most coffee drinkers love is the amount of antioxidants that they can get just by drinking their delicious brew," the TCB Director General pointed out and added that antioxidants are what you need to fight all of the free radicals that can cause cell damage spreading through your body. He said coffee was not the highest in antioxidants, but it is the most consumed source out there.

Eng Kumburu said the fourth health benefit of drinking coffee was that it is environmentally friendly in that there are huge chances that in the future, we will all be running cars with cheaper option, that is fuel made from coffee bean oils, so there we will have better environmental protection as well as a multitude of health benefits from cleaning up our earth.

Lastly, coffee drinking boost short term memory, as coffee drinkers have been known to have shorter reaction times and faster short term memory functions, which means that drinking decaf will not pep you up mentally as much as you might like to be.