Before I start talking about coffee, I think it’s important that we understand some of the key vocabulary.

Okay, so the first word is caffeine. Caffeine. Okay, that’s C-A-F-F-E-I-N-E. Okay, a weird spelling—caffeine. Caffeine is something that we find in coffee, tea, and maybe energy drinks, and it keeps you more awake. Caffeine.

Then we have stimulant. Stimulant. S-T-I-M-U-L-A-N-T. Stimulant. That is a type of substance that increases your energy and alertness—something you put inside you to make you have more energy and be more awake. Stimulant.

Next word is benefit. Benefit. B-E-N-E-F-I-T. A benefit is an advantage or a positive effect that something gives you. Okay, so the benefit of working is that you get paid. The benefit of drinking coffee maybe is that you’re more awake.

Our next word is boost. Boost. B-O-O-S-T. Boost. That’s to increase or improve something. You can imagine if you’re running, suddenly you have a little boost and you go even faster. Boost.

Depend. Depend. D-E-P-E-N-D. Depend. That’s to rely on something or need something regularly. I depend on air, water, and sleep to keep me alive, but we can depend on other things too.

Alright, I’m going to read the script now. It’s going to take about 5 minutes or so, and I want you to listen out for those words. Here we go.

Is coffee good or bad for you? With millions of cups drunk every day around the world, coffee is a big part of our lives. But what does it do to our health? We’ll look at the good and bad sides of drinking coffee to help you decide about your coffee habits.

So, let’s start with the good news. Coffee has several health benefits that might surprise you.

First, coffee drinkers might live longer. Studies show that people who drink coffee every day have a lower risk of dying from some major diseases like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease.

Coffee can also help your body manage sugar better, which can reduce the risk of getting type 2 diabetes.

Drinking one or two cups a day may lower the risk of heart failure, and it’s linked to a lower chance of developing Parkinson’s disease and better control of its symptoms too.

Your liver will also benefit from coffee. Both regular and decaf coffee can help keep your liver enzymes at healthy levels.

Dark roast coffee can reduce DNA damage, which lowers the risk of cancer, and coffee drinkers are also less likely to develop colon cancer.

The caffeine in coffee may protect against Alzheimer’s disease, and drinking two to three cups can lower the risk of developing dementia in older adults, especially women.

Finally, coffee can help prevent strokes. Drinking at least a cup a day is linked to a lower risk of stroke, which is a major cause of death.

But unfortunately, coffee isn’t all good news. There are some bad sides, especially when you drink too much.

So, caffeine is a stimulant, and too much can make you anxious, nervous, or jittery.

It increases alertness by blocking adenosine, a chemical that makes you feel tired, but it can also cause insomnia if you drink it later in the day. To avoid sleep problems, it’s best to stop drinking caffeine by early afternoon.

Coffee can also act as a laxative, leading to loose stools or even diarrhoea in some people.

It might also worsen symptoms of GERD, causing stomach discomfort.

Very high caffeine intake can cause a serious condition called rhabdomyolysis, where damaged muscle fibres enter the bloodstream and harm the kidneys. It’s a good idea to keep your daily caffeine intake below 400 mg.

Caffeine can be habit-forming. While not a true addiction, it can lead to dependency, especially with high daily consumption.

It can also raise blood pressure temporarily, which is risky for those with already high blood pressure. Additionally, high doses of caffeine can cause your heart to beat faster or become irregular. If this happens, you should cut back.

While coffee gives a temporary energy boost, it can lead to rebound fatigue once the effects wear off, which leaves you more tired.

Caffeine is also a diuretic, meaning it increases urination, which can be inconvenient and might even lead to incontinence in some people.

So, is coffee good or bad for you? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t so simple. Coffee has many health benefits, from helping you to live longer to protecting against diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.

But it’s important to drink it in moderation to avoid any negative effects like anxiety, insomnia, and high blood pressure. For most people, drinking three to five cups a day is safe and can be part of a healthy lifestyle. Just pay attention to your body’s response and adjust your intake if needed.

Remember, the healthiest coffee habit includes a balanced diet, regular exercise, and good sleep.

So, let’s look at those words again: caffeine, stimulant, benefit, boost, and depend.

“The caffeine in coffee may protect against Alzheimer’s disease”.

So, caffeine is the name of a drug that keeps you awake. It’s a stimulant.

“Caffeine is a stimulant”.

A stimulant is a kind of substance that increases your energy and keeps you awake.

Then we had benefit.

“Coffee has several health benefits that might surprise you”.

So, benefits are the good points, the things you can get that are good.

After that, it was boost.

“While coffee gives a temporary energy boost, it can lead to rebound fatigue”.

So, that means some kind of increase. Here, it was an energy boost that we get from the caffeine.

And our last word was depend.

“While not a true addiction, it can lead to dependency”.

To depend means to rely on something or need something again and again. So, I, for example, depend on coffee every morning. I can’t imagine living a day without coffee.

So that’s five words that we use fairly often in everyday English. Now, I want to give you five more words so that you can describe illnesses and diseases.

Our first one is diabetes. Diabetes. D-I-A-B-E-T-E-S. Diabetes. Diabetes is a disease that affects how your body uses sugar.

Our next word is cancer. Cancer. C-A-N-C-E-R. Cancer. Cancer is a serious disease where the cells in your body grow uncontrollably. So, your cells grow too much, and they are damaged in some way. Cancer.

The next word is insomnia. Insomnia. I-N-S-O-M-N-I-A. Insomnia. Insomnia means you have difficulty sleeping or staying asleep. Insomnia.

The next word is diarrhoea. Diarrhoea. D-I-A-R-R-H-O-E-A. Diarrhoea. That’s the British spelling. Diarrhoea is frequent and loose bowel movements. Okay, so that’s the most polite way we can say it. Really, what it means is going to the bathroom to poop often, and the poop is very loose. It comes out far too easily; there is a lot of water in there. Diarrhoea.

And the last word is stroke. Stroke. S-T-R-O-K-E. Stroke. A stroke is a sudden problem in the brain that causes some damage, and it affects your movement and your speech. Stroke.

Okay, I’m going to talk about coffee and caffeine again, and I want you to listen out for these five illnesses and diseases. Here we go.

Is coffee good or bad for you? With millions of cups drunk every day around the world, coffee is a big part of our lives. But what does it do to our health? We’ll look at the good and bad sides of drinking coffee to help you decide about your coffee habits.

So, let’s start with the good news. Coffee has several health benefits that might surprise you.

First, coffee drinkers might live longer. Studies show that people who drink coffee every day have a lower risk of dying from some major diseases like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease.

Coffee can also help your body manage sugar better, which can reduce the risk of getting type 2 diabetes.

Drinking one or two cups a day may lower the risk of heart failure, and it’s linked to a lower chance of developing Parkinson’s disease and better control of its symptoms too.

Your liver will also benefit from coffee. Both regular and decaf coffee can help keep your liver enzymes at healthy levels.

Dark roast coffee can reduce DNA damage, which lowers the risk of cancer, and coffee drinkers are also less likely to develop colon cancer.

The caffeine in coffee may protect against Alzheimer’s disease, and drinking two to three cups can lower the risk of developing dementia in older adults, especially women.

Finally, coffee can help prevent strokes. Drinking at least a cup a day is linked to a lower risk of stroke, which is a major cause of death.

But unfortunately, coffee isn’t all good news. There are some bad sides, especially when you drink too much.

So, caffeine is a stimulant, and too much can make you anxious, nervous, or jittery.

It increases alertness by blocking adenosine, a chemical that makes you feel tired, but it can also cause insomnia if you drink it later in the day. To avoid sleep problems, it’s best to stop drinking caffeine by early afternoon.

Coffee can also act as a laxative, leading to loose stools or even diarrhoea in some people.

It might also worsen symptoms of GERD, causing stomach discomfort.

Very high caffeine intake can cause a serious condition called rhabdomyolysis, where damaged muscle fibres enter the bloodstream and harm the kidneys. It’s a good idea to keep your daily caffeine intake below 400 mg.

Caffeine can be habit-forming. While not a true addiction, it can lead to dependency, especially with high daily consumption.

It can also raise blood pressure temporarily, which is risky for those with already high blood pressure. Additionally, high doses of caffeine can cause your heart to beat faster or become irregular. If this happens, you should cut back.

While coffee gives a temporary energy boost, it can lead to rebound fatigue once the effects wear off, which leaves you more tired.

Caffeine is also a diuretic, meaning it increases urination, which can be inconvenient and might even lead to incontinence in some people.

So, is coffee good or bad for you? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t so simple. Coffee has many health benefits, from helping you to live longer to protecting against diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.

But it’s important to drink it in moderation to avoid any negative effects like anxiety, insomnia, and high blood pressure. For most people, drinking three to five cups a day is safe and can be part of a healthy lifestyle. Just pay attention to your body’s response and adjust your intake if needed.

Remember, the healthiest coffee habit includes a balanced diet, regular exercise, and good sleep.

Okay, so let’s look at those medical words in more context.

First, diabetes.

“Coffee can also help your body manage sugar better, which can reduce the risk of getting type 2 diabetes”.

Remember, diabetes is a disease that affects how your body uses sugar.

Then, cancer.

“Dark roast coffee can reduce DNA damage, which lowers the risk of cancer”.

Cancer is a serious disease where your cells grow uncontrollably.

Insomnia.

“It can also cause insomnia if you drink it later in the day”.

Insomnia is difficulty in going to sleep and staying asleep.

Diarrhoea.

“Coffee can also act as a laxative, leading to loose stools or even diarrhoea in some people”.

Diarrhoea is going to the bathroom often, and your stools, or your poop, is very loose or wet.”

Stroke.

“Drinking at least a cup a day is linked to a lower risk of stroke”.

Stroke is a sudden problem in the brain which affects how you move and your speech.

Let’s talk about the grammar now. I have two advanced grammar points that I’d like to share with you, starting with relative clauses.

When I spoke about coffee, I said that, “Studies show that people who drink coffee every day have a lower risk of dying from some major diseases”.

So, the relative clause in there is “who drink coffee every day.”

Okay, so I could have just said “people”, but I wanted to give some more information. Instead of just “people”, I said “people who drink coffee every day”.

By adding that bit of extra information, I describe the group in a more specific and correct way.

That part, “who drink coffee every day”, is a relative clause.

If you wanted to talk about me, you might say, “Rhys, an English teacher online, went to the shop yesterday”.

Or, “Those people who won’t stop talking are really annoying me”.

Just adding that bit of information easily into the sentence can help you be more specific with what you want to say.

The next bit of grammar is called a concessive clause. Concessive.

Here’s the example, “But coffee isn’t all good news; there are some bad sides, especially when you drink too much”.

The concessive clause is “especially when you drink too much.” So, what does that mean?

I’m using “especially” to say that this is truer, or more true, when you drink too much. There are bad sides if you drink even a little bit of coffee, but it’s more true when you drink a lot. Notice that it kind of changes the meaning of the sentence.

So, here’s the sentence again with no concessive clause.

“But coffee isn’t all good news; there are some bad sides”. Okay, so the listener might think, “Okay, there are good sides and there are bad sides, and they are about the same, they’re about equal”.

That’s not what I’m trying to say. Adding “especially when you drink too much” tells the listener that that is more true when you drink too much.