Posted by:
Brother Of Jerry
(
)
Date: June 14, 2021 09:37AM
Yes, we've heard this before here, but a new article in the NYTimes highlights new research.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/well/eat/coffee-health-benefits.htmlFrom the article:
>All of us should be happy to know that whatever it took to secure that favorite cup of Joe may actually have helped to keep us healthy. The latest assessments of the health effects of coffee and caffeine, its main active ingredient, are reassuring indeed. Their consumption has been linked to a reduced risk of all kinds of ailments, including Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, gallstones, depression, suicide, cirrhosis, liver cancer, melanoma and prostate cancer.
>In fact, in numerous studies conducted throughout the world, consuming four or five eight-ounce cups of coffee (or about 400 milligrams of caffeine) a day has been associated with reduced death rates. In a study of more than 200,000 participants followed for up to 30 years, those who drank three to five cups of coffee a day, with or without caffeine, were 15 percent less likely to die early from all causes than were people who shunned coffee. Perhaps most dramatic was a 50 percent reduction in the risk of suicide among both men and women who were moderate coffee drinkers, perhaps by boosting production of brain chemicals that have antidepressant effects.
>As a report published last summer by a research team at the Harvard School of Public Health concluded, although current evidence may not warrant recommending coffee or caffeine to prevent disease, for most people drinking coffee in moderation “can be part of a healthy lifestyle.”
>It wasn’t always thus. I’ve lived through decades of sporadic warnings that coffee could be a health hazard. Over the years, coffee’s been deemed a cause of conditions such as heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, pancreatic cancer, anxiety disorder, nutrient deficiencies, gastric reflux disease, migraine, insomnia, and premature death. As recently as 1991, the World Health Organization listed coffee as a possible carcinogen. In some of the now-discredited studies, smoking, not coffee drinking (the two often went hand-in-hand) was responsible for the purported hazard.
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There are links in the online article to the reports mentioned above,
The article did bring up two problems with coffee drinking. Caffeine does transport across the placenta in pregnancy, and correlates with earlier delivery and lower birthweight.
Caffeine is also associated with sleep disturbances, which may be worse for older people. Restricting intake to earlier in the day helps.
But other than that, coffee comes out looking pretty good.
Third problem: if you load your coffee up with sugars and creams, it is essentially liquid junk food.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2021 09:40AM by Brother Of Jerry.