A Nice Cuppa

We all have read, heard or been told an amazing amount of wildly fluctuating information about the pitfalls and advantages of drinking coffee. One study leads us to believe that drinking coffee will cut our lives short, and then another study tells us of the powerful antioxidant potential in our morning cup of java. Decaf coffee is riddled with chemicals, but wait, it’s those chemicals that prevent you from having a heart attack if you drink a lot!

It’s enough to make you toss your coffeemaker into a darkened corner of your garage and climb under a chair to hide from the onslaught. What mainstream food or beverage item hasn’t undergone a similar microscopic scrutiny of its fundamental structure in order to attack or alleviate concern for its consumption? Remember eggs?

Dutch researchers, in an article published in 2002, claimed that compounds in coffee help aid in the body’s metabolism of sugar, and a 2004 study on coffee and diabetes showed that drinking coffee was found to reduce one’s chances of developing type-2 Diabetes. However, the studies showed that this information was gleaned from those who drank upwards of 7 cups a day, and warned that excessive coffee drinking could easily lead to other health issues

Coffee and heart disease offers a mixed bag of information as well. An excessive amount of coffee consumption has been thought to lead to high blood pressure, and has been shown to raise homocysteine levels in the blood, a potential factor in heart attacks. Then in 2000, a Finnish study resulted in surprising evidence that coffee drinking did not result in heart problems as those in the study who drank coffee were shown to have healthier hearts than those who didn’t. It was noted, however, that no lifestyle or diet considerations were taken into account with this study.

(source: http://coffeetea.about.com/)

As consumers, we need to be able to gauge for ourselves the potential risks and benefits of anything we eat or drink, and take our own personal lifestyle into account as well when making such decisions. Coffee, out of any other beverage in world, has had controversy rage over it since the first thick and richly brewed cup made its way into Europe, through Venetian merchants, at the Port of Mocha in Yemen. (see A History of Coffee)

The tradition of Islam forbids alcohol, so coffee became the drink of choice for the Arabs, to a point of being dubbed the ‘Wine of Arabia’. The brew’s invigorating effects followed it’s exodus through Europe, where it was often called ‘Devils brew’ for the stimulation caused by its consumption. Some priests of the Christian church, owing to coffee’s connection to Islam as an impassioned drink, called for the beverage to be banned as ‘the drink of Satan’ and it might have stayed that way had Pope Clement III in 1600 tasted the drink prior to banishment and declared “This drink of Satan is so good it would be a shame to leave it to the infidels. Let’s confound Satan by blessing it”

(source: http://www.coffeenewsco.com/8.htm).

So is it a manner of devil worship when we consume this lustrous, heady drink? Or is it a renowned and healthy elixir, worthy of adoration and praise? It might be dependent on your physical makeup as it seems that more than half of the population of coffee drinkers has a gene that produces a protein, CYP1A2 that quickly and efficiently metabolizes caffeine. And the other 50% don’t. So the diabetes-preventing, athletic performance enhancing brew that also subsequently is touted as being an addictive substance contributing to possibly irregular heartbeats, hardening of blood vessels, high blood pressure and mineral loss isn’t really to blame. It’s our bodies. Those of us with the well-functioning genetic makeup can thank the coffee, our own personal health food, and for others whose bodies are too slow to metabolize the caffeine and risk heart attack and other health issues, please don’t blame the bean.