In his boxing prime and country of birth, Muhammad Ali was quite possibly the most reviled athlete ever. Blame it on the one-two punch he threw outside the ring: unbridled braggadocio and unpopular political and religious beliefs.

Yet by the time he died in 2016, he was arguably the most beloved figure in the world.

So where’s the link between Ali and coffee? While coffee was never as reviled as Ali, around his prime and for nearly two decades afterwards, it was nearly as misunderstood.

People generally believed - including many in the medical community - consuming it could stunt your growth, lead to heart problems, create caffeine addicts, and be a major player in poor overall health.

A 1984 article in the journal Social Problems called its widespread use a “growing controversy in the U.S. which threatens to transform ... into a social problem.” In 1991, coffee was included in a list of possible carcinogens by the World Health Organization (though it was later exonerated).

Yet now it’s almost as beloved as Ali at the time of his passing - and for good reason. The dramatic turnabout in public perception comes from study after study that shows how all but excessive consumption of coffee leads to better health.

Consult the Johns Hopkins website, for instance, and you’ll learn that drinking the “right amount” makes you less likely to develop Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and colon cancer, heart disease and type-two diabetes, as well as suffer a stroke. And that “your liver will thank you for it.”

All of which leads to coffee drinkers living longer.

The Johns Hopkins’ assessment is far from an outlier. The conclusion of Harvard’s online article about coffee states that consuming 3 to 5 cups daily has been consistently associated with a reduced risk of several chronic diseases and that a “large body” of evidence shows consuming caffeinated coffee does not - contrary to the belief during Ali’s prime - increase the risk of certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases.

Now, research performed at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and published in the February 2022 issue of Nature Communications reveals just how imbibing in coffee reduces heart disease risk.

In short, there’s a protein you produce, PCSK9, that keeps your liver from doing a really good thing: breaking down low-density lipoproteins - the “bad” type of cholesterol - and creating bile, vitamin D, and other innocuous substances from it. Therefore, a higher production of PCSK9 leads to higher levels of LDL in your bloodstream, which increases the odds of heart disease, especially atherosclerosis.

Two hours after the subjects in the McMaster study consumed coffee containing 400 mg of caffeine, however, their levels of PCSK9 had dropped an average of 25 percent. Two hours later, the rate was still 21% lower than before coffee consumption.

This gives coffee lovers - in the words of Dr. Richard Austin, Ph.D., senior author and professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster - “another important health reason to rejoice.” And Daysmith Coffee+, a company based out of Austin, Texas, may very well have given them another.

Daysmith now offers through their website drinkdaysmith.com, and snackmagic.com a cold-brew, Multi Straight Black Coffee Brew, that’s infused with 100 percent of the Daily Value of Vitamins A, C, D, B-3, B-6, B-12, 360 mg of potassium - and contains no sugar.

I’ve tried it now four times and absolutely love its smoothness, so it came as no surprise that it’s called “ultra-smooth” in the press release announcing availability of the product. And once I added the amount of stevia I use to sweeten any type of coffee, I enjoyed it as much as my go-to brew, a make-at-home, half-caff mix of Starbucks Caffe Verona.

While the price might strike you as a bit steep, $48 for a 12-pack, Daysmith founders Daniel Mendez and Derek Nelson are anything but greedy. Every month, they donate thousands of Daysmith coffees to hospitals in the Austin area as their way of acknowledging the tremendous resolve health care workers have displayed during the pandemic.

Because I consume my coffee before workouts and want no calories at that time, I have yet to try either of the canned Daysmith Coffee+ plant-based lattes that are dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, non-GMO, and nut-free. But if you are a latte drinker, they may be worth a try.

One can of Focus Vanilla Oat Milk Latte contains 60 calories, 100 percent of the Daily Value of B-3, B-6, and B-12, along with 550 mg of potassium, some L-theanine and omega 3, and only 5 grams of sugar. Immunity Mocha Oat Milk Latte has 70 cals, 100 percent of the Daily Value of the C and D vitamins, 60 percent of zinc’s, 650 mg of potassium, and again only 5 grams of sugar.