this week is 'coffee week' at NPR;

you can search their website for the back segments, here's todays:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/04/24/177757797/coffee-for-a-cause-what-do-those-feel-good-labels-deliver

Another case of Truth vs. Mormonism, 'eh?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2013 01:20PM by guynoirprivateeye.

I read a book not too long ago (don't recall the title right off) that began asking a question like: "Would you take a medicine today if it would make your life more livable today but was guaranteed to kill you in 30 years?"

The book was about adaptations that do just this. One example was hemochromatosis which is an inherited disease in which too much iron builds up in the body. The author happened to have inherited this problem and understood from symptoms that his grandfather apparently did too. His grandfather gave blood on a regular basis which alleviated his symptoms. This might also lend credence to the old time medical practice of bleeding patients for what ailed them. The author goes on to explain that this condition while a problem for sufferers provided an important protection centuries ago in providing some resistance to bubonic plague. As I recall, something about the condition give the white blood cells some protection against the pathogen in the plague allowing them to fight off the disease better than those without the gene. The side effect was that the genetic condition caused the person to greater possibility of life-threatening conditions such as cancer, heart arrhythmias and cirrhosis.

The point is that while coffee or anything else may have beneficial effects for one part of the body, it could just as easily have harmful effects on other parts. Most medications provided to patients with one ailment or another have side effects ranging from mild discomfort to causing life-threatening conditions unrelated to the original condition. Treatments are a matter of weighing the benefits against the detriments of taking the medicine.

I think the same thing applies to the subject of coffee, teas, alcohol, or any other food or drink we might consume. Like so many things in life, what we decide to consume is a mater of trade offs. Some of it will have a net benefit for us individually, while the same thing may have a net detriment for someone else. The problem has as much to do with our individual make up and TSCC's attempt to issue edicts (as a matter of faith) in a one-size-fits-all way.