Jogreet C.
Research in the Community Excerpts
Fall 2009 Trimester

Your Morning Cup of Joe:
More beneficial than you think

Walk into Peet's, Starbucks, or the local coffee shop around the block and you see businessmen and college students among the crowd enjoying their cup of coffee. ...Sure, coffee isn't a "healthy" drink, but despite the common and overwhelming thought, it isn't necessarily an unhealthy one. Coffee contains both good and bad components; the most infamous one being caffeine. ...Many of the common myths of coffee are simply untrue, such as the myth that parents often tell their kids to keep them from drinking coffee: coffee stunts your growth. It is certain myths like this, and other exaggerations of harmful effects that have given coffee a bad name among many adults. Although coffee is known for its harmful health effects, when consumed in moderation, coffee can provide benefits to health such as reduced risk of certain diseases.

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Caffeine, the main component in coffee that is most worrisome, is the "most widely used psychoactive drug in the world" ("Passionate about Your Coffee?").This drug stimulates the central nervous system and can seriously affect the health and behavior of adults, and especially kids. ... Yes, caffeine is mildly addictive in the sense that after consistently having a couple cups a day, one may feel dependent on the substance and can be subject to withdrawal symptoms when stopping consumption. And yes, caffeine may make you jittery and nervous, increase your heart rate and blood pressure, and even make it difficult to concentrate ("Caffeine and your Child"). These are all legitimate concerns that many parents and anti-coffee believers have. The thing is, caffeine can be helpful by increasing alertness, helping keep focus and concentration, and even improving physical performance. The good news for athletes is that the caffeine in coffee takes effect almost immediately; it goes to the muscles, making them contract and further improving performance (Chuang, Carol). It also triggers the release of adrenaline and makes the muscles work harder for a longer time. ...After too many cups of coffee, people can feel wired and actually have a harder time concentrating. But if you drink one or even two cups, it may be enough to help you get more done and do better physically.

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Here is one interesting benefit that caffeine provides: a 50% reduction in the risk of Parkinson's disease. Dr. Wendy R. Galpern of NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke says that "when looking at Parkinson's disease patients, they may be up to 4-8 times less likely to have been heavy coffee drinkers." ... In this case, caffeine is what provides the benefit, not the coffee. Researchers are not certain why caffeine has this beneficial aspect, but they do know that it helps men even more than women. ...Dr. Alberto Ascherio, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, claims that for men, the risk of Parkinson's can be cut by half (compared to those who do not drink) by simply consuming 150 milligrams a day, which is about the amount in an average cup of coffee (Foreman, Judy).

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One common worry that is now dispelled is that coffee can lead to cancer. Heavy coffee drinkers often have the bad habits of smoking cigarettes and low physical activity. For this reason, many previous studies done that show more health risks due to heavy coffee consumption, including risk of cancer, can be discounted ("Concerned About Coffee").

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Coffee's potent antioxidants are linked to providing many of the benefits coffee can produce. Interestingly enough, the roasting process increases the amount of antioxidants in the bean (Klos, Beth). You may actually be getting more antioxidants from your morning coffee than you thought; series of studies done in 2004 showed that "coffee was the single biggest contributor to total dietary intake of antioxidants" (Luttinger, Nina and Gregory Dicum). It is thought that this component of coffee may be what protects against liver cancer, gallstones and other types of cancers. ...The findings suggested that the antioxidants in coffee may be what help here because it "dampens inflammation" (Bakalar, Nicholas).

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Researchers, doctors and studies all seem to agree that coffee reduces the risk of Type 2 Diabetes. There has been the strongest research looking at the effect of coffee in preventing type 2 Diabetes, compared to research on other diseases. There have been more than 20 studies that have looked at this phenomenon in various populations and consistently there has been consensus that coffee helps prevent this health problem. ...Although these findings are consistent, it is still unknown what exactly what it is in coffee that gives this protection. We do know that caffeine, in this case, is not the component... since the same level of risk reduction was shown when drinking decaffeinated coffee. One possibility is that antioxidants in coffee help control cell damage from which diabetes can develop (Bakalar, Nicholas). Another is that coffee is a source of chlorogenic acid and trigonelline, which reduce the concentration and slows the absorption of glucose (sugar) from the intestines. ... The reason may not be certain, but coffee, decaf and caffeinated, is a source of something that strongly helps prevent against type 2 Diabetes.

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This may make drinking coffee sound scary, but as long as you find yourself not becoming too dependent on it, coffee can affect you in good ways. Drinking coffee in moderation is the key to receiving the benefits and not the harmful effects coffee also has. ... Drinking moderately still provides you with some risk reduction of these diseases, not to mention alertness and better performance done in tasks along with an overall mood elevation. As Donald Hensrud, chair of the division of preventive medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, says "For most people [who] choose to drink coffee, the benefits probably outweigh the risks" ("Is Coffee Bad For You?"). So go ahead and enjoy your morning cup of Joe, or even couple cups of Joe, just make sure you keep it to moderate consumption and you'll be enjoying the variety of benefits coffee brings to your health along with the delicious taste.