Who knows how National Coffee Day got its start, but give me any reason to celebrate a meaningless commercial holiday and I'm on board. If you need a little more inspiration, consider the fact that coffee could have some serious health benefits, and may even prevent skin aging. Michael W. Smith, M.D. reports that the much-maligned but undoubtedly beloved beverage cuts the risk of the latest disease epidemic -- type 2 diabetes -- and could also be responsible for preventing and treating diseases and illnesses as varied as Alzheimer's, diabetes, liver disease, skin cancer, Parkinsons's, and more. These health benefits, along with the anti-inflammatory properties caffeine exhibits when used topically, should be enough for you to celebrate National Coffee Day while sipping your antioxidant-rich cup of Joe from Sant Ambroeus. But now scientists are claiming that your morning addiction could also help get rid of sun-damaged skin cells before they become cancerous, and in some studies, the extract of coffee cherries improved the appearance of wrinkles and skin discoloration, and enhanced skin smoothness.

Indeed, coffee cherries are a bit different than the grounds in your venti soy latte. A cherry holds the coffee bean that gets extracted and ground to make coffee (or put into your favorite facewash). While these cherries have long been thought of as a by-product of your morning drug, new studies have found that these oft-discarded cherries have up to three times the antioxidant potential of green tea. In fact, the Oxygen Radical Absorbency Capacity (ORAC), or the scale that measures the levels of antioxidants in food, gives the cherry a score of 15,000 to 17,500 points higher than any other known naturally occurring antioxidant. One company has already jumped on the bandwagon and is producing overpriced products with coffee cherry extract as their main ingredient. If this sounds like the way you'd like to celebrate National Coffee Day, RevaleSkin offers creams and cleansers at $40- $120. If not, Starbucks is handing out free samples of Via Instant Coffee.