Being a purveyor of coffee does have its dicier moments. Rumors percolating about the humble beverage’s dark side have been many and persistent (A vestige, perhaps, from our Puritan forebearers: ‘If it’s pleasurable, it must be nasty.’)
Coffee, caffeine in particular, has endured a lot of undeserved bad press. Amanda Gardner, writing in the New York Daily News, notes that, despite persistent beliefs that caffeine consumption can lead to pancreatic and breast cancers, there exists little evidence suggesting that’s true, and she’s backed up by the head of epidemiological research for the American Cancer Society.
In fact, caffeine’s diuretic properties may help lower the risk of bladder cancer. Caffeine had been rumored to contribute to the development of osteoporosis. Another myth, says the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Baldness, hypertension, hot brains, eye stigmata…Yipes! Slander and libel!!
In an article published in Playboy’s April, 1998 issue, Stanley Segall, a professor of food science at Drexel University in Philadelphia, identified at least 400 different antioxidants present in fresh coffee. Among them, aldehydes and ketones that are believed to affect free radicals, cancer cells, and cells linked to aging.
In August of 2005, MSNBC, quoting an Associated Press article, reported that coffee provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the American diet. Joe A. Vinson, chemistry professor at the University of Scranton, and his team analyzed the antioxidant content of more than 100 different food items, including vegetables, fruits, nuts, spices, oils and common beverages. They used Agriculture Department data to calculate how much antioxidant each contributes. Coffee? 1,299 milligrams daily (on average). The closest competitor was black tea at 294 milligrams. Vinson thinks that coffee’s antioxidants, known as polyphenols (doesn’t that sound tasty?) can be good for you in a number of ways, affecting enzymes and genes.
June 26th, 2006. ABC News John McKenzie reported that daily cups of coffee have been linked to a reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease, liver cancer, gallstones, and type-2 diabetes, and research suggests the more coffee you drink, the greater the protection.
Michael Smith, staff writer for MedPage Today, reported in July of 2005 that a Dutch/American team of researchers, reviewing 15 epidemiological studies, revealed that the more coffee the study participants drank per day, the lower the risk of type-2 diabetes. More than six or seven cups a day was associated with 35% lower risk, compared to those who drank less than two cups a day. Oxidative stress can contribute to the development of diabetes, coffee = antioxidants.
It’s not just caffeine. Coffee is a complex brew, including chlorogenic acid, quinides, magnesium, and other delicious compounds. Indeed, decaf has been shown to be just as effective in disease prevention.
And then came the news on June 13th, 2006. It was, I’m sure, coincidence that I first found the following at the irishhealth website. (It was published simultaneously by the Wall Street Journal.) “Drinking coffee could help protect against alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver”. A team of U.S. researchers followed 125,000 people, beginning in 1978, through 2001, finding that the more coffee a person consumed, the less likely they were to develop alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver. The researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program charted about a 20% decline in risk for people drinking up to four cups of coffee a day. At four cups, the decline in risk rises to 80%. A Japanese research group had earlier released data suggesting a 50% rate.
It must be noted that exactly how coffee consumption creates these affects and studies point out, that adopting coffee as a preventive or curative therapy is unwise and, might even be dangerous. Talk to your doctor before deciding to radically alter your coffee consumption. Maybe you two can talk about it over a cuppa coffee.
Peter Fremming is an irascible scoundrel who, through a quirk of fate, found himself roasting coffee to earn his living. He is currently keeping people awake at Premier Gourmet in Kenmore.
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