There are people who groom themselves for hours each day. Complain incessantly about body flaws that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Have multiple cosmetic surgeries on the same body part. Thoughts of suicide because they just can’t get their look “right.”

These people suffer from body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. While I find BDD morbidly fascinating and imagine you do too, you’ll read no more about it here.

Even liberal estimations have the national rate of BDD at no more than 2 percent - and the incidence in Carbon and Schuylkill counties probably doesn’t approach half that. In short, you’re probably more likely to know someone who has a llama or a Lamborghini than BDD.

But who doesn’t know a coffee drinker? In fact, there’s more than a 50-50 chance you’re a daily consumer yourself.

And who hasn’t recently read about a study or two where drinking coffee was linked to good health?

In an article titled “More Coffee?” and found at his website, Dr. Phil Maffetone compiles the benefits. Moderate coffee consumption improves blood sugar levels which may help prevent diabetes; promotes brain better function and may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s; bolsters the immune system; reduces the oxidative stress that leads to aging and disease; reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, liver and neurological conditions, cancer, overall mortality; and increases the rate of fat-burning.

Most recently, researchers have gained greater insight into why coffee accelerates fat burn.

Virtually all of your stored fat, including the unsightly stuff that leads to thunder thighs and love handles, is white fat. It’s inert and burns no calories.

But you have about t 3 ounces of brown fat that burns cals when you are uncomfortably cold: up to 250 in three hours.

While white fat can’t be transformed into brown fat, it can become a hybrid of the two that burns calories: beige fat. While some experts believe creating beige fat is a key to abating obesity, much still needs to be learned about the process.

But there is a way for your brown fat to burn cals when you’re not shivering. According to research performed at the University of Nottingham in England and published in the June issue of Scientific Reports, it occurs when you drink a single cup of coffee.

Moreover, brown fat burns a fair amount of white fat, so it also improves blood sugar and cholesterol levels. While all of the benefits listed above make drinking a cup or two of coffee a day a good health deal, you can create an even better one by adding the right stuff to your brew.

Like cocoa.

I started adding a teaspoon to each cup about the same time I started this column after reading that a bodybuilder did so. He felt cocoa worked synergistically with coffee to create an even greater pre-workout kick in the pants.

I tried it and got hooked. I even had the main character in the novel I published in 1993 drink the same coffee-cocoa concoction.

She called it The Cocoa Bomb and would drink it before long-distance runs.

I mention the character and the copyright because a nutrition expert I hold in high regard, Will Brink, has been touting his own personal mix he calls Bomb Proof Coffee at his website since 2014. He also adds cocoa to his coffee and provides the reasons why.

Cocoa is rich in flavonoids and flavanols, which your body uses as antioxidants to fight the free radicals that create disease and aging. It also contains a bit of magnesium, an anti-inflammatory that regulates the stress hormone cortisol and improves the quality of sleep.

Brink cites studies that link cocoa consumption to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and insulin resistance, but stresses that the positive effect of cocoa is lessened if the cocoa undergoes alkalization, also known as Dutch Processing.

Since it’s tasteless, colorless and a hassle to drink when mixed in water, Brink also adds his daily dose of creatine to his Bomb Proof Coffee. About 25 years after the first testing, this muscle-enhancing supplement has gained widespread acceptance as a safe way not only to add muscle mass, but also to retain it as you age.

I add 5 of the 10 milligrams of creatine I take daily to my first Cocoa Bomb of the day.

While creatine dissolves into hot coffee immediately, the cocoa requires a good bit of stirring. Brink lessens that problem by adding coconut oil - even though he feels the proposed health benefits of coconut oil can be “vastly over exaggerated.” He also adds two more ingredients I don’t: a bit of skim milk and tyrosine, an amino acid that’s been shown to enhance mental acuity.

So if you’d like your cup of coffee to help your health a bit more than it already does, I’ll suggest what I’ve suggested so many times in the past: experiment.

Start with my Cocoa Bomb or Brink’s Bomb Proof Coffee and go from there.