Happy International Coffee Day!

Coffee lovers around the world can celebrate their love of the brown bean on international Coffee Day, Saturday 1 October. You may want to share a toast with a flat white, long black, macchiato, espresso for the purists, or lighten your latte with skim, oat, almond, soy or go to town and flavour it with a splash of caramel.

What if you don’t like coffee?

What if you prefer tea, hot chocolate or a herbal drink? The good news is – you don’t have to drink it! There are many ways coffee can be used to enhance your life, rid you of pests and make you thin and beautiful. Don’t believe me?
Just watch.

1. Additional benefits of coffee include
   1. Eliminate Cellulite – coffee has been proven to be effective in eliminating cellulite. Grab a handful of the grounds and rub on to affected areas – add a splash of coconut oil to assist the application and rub in circular motions to thighs and bot bot. That’s right. Watch and learn.
   2. Brighten up the under-eye area – coffee rehydrates the skin and can be helpful for dark circles under the eye area. Mix grounds with water or coconut oil, apply a small amount under the eye area and leave for ten minutes before rinsing off. Caffeine has anti-inflammatory properties and stimulates blood circulation around the eyes. It is also full of antioxidants which fight free radicals which can enhance skin texture and reduce the effects of ageing.
   3. Enhance your long flowing locks or promote new growth to baldy bits – you might notice caffeine is sometimes added to hair growth products. This is because caffeine stimulates blood flow and can stimulate hair growth. Simply grab a handful of coffee grounds before shampooing your hair and massage this into your scalp followed by a rinse. (You may want to rethink that thigh and bottom rubbing. Just sayin’.)
   4. Hair Dye – coffee grounds can be used to deepen the colour of dark hair. Commercial food and hair dyes can contain hundreds of chemicals, many of which may cause cancer. Used coffee grounds make a great non-toxic alternative to traditional dyes.
   5. Exfoliate body and face – make a coffee scrub exfoliant by mixing coffee grounds with a little bit of water or coconut oil and scrub them with your hands directly onto your face and body. Coffee grounds can also be mixed with a small amount of honey and used as an exfoliating lip scrub. What’s more, caffeine has potent antioxidant properties that can help protect the skin from sun damage.
   6. Weight control – coffee can promote weight loss by boosting metabolism and aiding appetite control. That is, if you don’t pair that latte with cakes, crumpets, bakery treats or any other foods with high sugar content, which is tricky because they go together like a $9.99 menu special.
   7. Repel pests – compounds found in coffee, such as caffeine and diterpenes, can be highly toxic to insects because of this, you can use coffee grounds to repel bugs. Coffee grounds can deter mosquitoes, fruit flies, bugs, and ants. Set out bowls of grounds or sprinkle them around outdoor seating areas. You can also keep pests out of your garden by scattering coffee grounds around your plants. They help create a barrier that slugs and snails do not like to crawl over.So, there you have it, drink it, scatter it in your garden, scrub your body, rub it in your hair. Why are you still reading, you should be running down to your local cafe requesting grounds! Happy International coffee day to my fellow coffee lovers and others who may begin to consider using coffee in many more ways!

Some of these facts were taken from a website called healthline.com

This blog also appeared as content on another website where I moonlight, because I like to recycle.