Study: Is Drinking Coffee as Good as it is Made Out to Be?

Studies about the drinking habits of coffee and tea drinkers have always managed to excite attention, and with more and more studies being conducted, newer information has surfaced. Nine existing studies were looked at and analyzed.

Researchers determined how much of coffee was consumed by more than 5,000 cancer patients and 9,000 healthy people.In the latest study conducted, researchers have found that the incidence of head and neck cancers appeared to decrease when four or more cups of coffee were drunk every day. The risk in such cases decreased by 39 percent in respect of oral cavity and pharynx cancers. However, it did not appear to have any effect on laryngeal cancer.

By and large, the results seemed really positive, but Mia Hashibe, lead researcher and an assistant professor in the department of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah, cautioned against drinking lots of coffee.

Looking at the results from a logical point of view, Hashibe pointed out that the main risk factors for oral cancers were smoking and drinking alcohol, and the best way to prevent such cancers would be to stay away from smoking and drinking alcohol.

Further Hashibe indicated that it would be highly misleading to suggest that drinking lots of coffee without taking into account the real risk factors could prevent people from getting those cancers. Different people metabolize caffeine or coffee in different ways, and it was important to realize this fact before indulging in lots of coffee.

According to Dr. Donald Hensrud, chair of preventive medicine at the Mayo Clinic, there existed a perception that coffee was injurious to health. Recent studies said Dr. Hensrud have changed all that, and researchers appear to have come to the conclusion that drinking coffee was not all that bad..

However, when it came to establishing a link between drinking coffee and head and neck cancer, the benefits far outweighed the risks, and this fact appeared to be buttressed by the recent findings.

Going one step further, Hensrud said that it was difficult to ascertain how coffee really helped in such cancers, but with more than a 1,000 chemical compounds present, including cancer-fighting antioxidants, a plausible explanation could be arrived at.

Coffee does seem to have great potential in treating other diseases like dementia, diabetes, liver and Parkinson' s disease. Although the new study is strongly suggestive of such an inclination, Dr. Dong Shin, a head and neck specialist at Emory Winship Cancer Institute, suggested that coffee alone may not be responsible for progress in such diseases.

Dr. Shin was concerned that the studies did not see it appropriate to address the side effects of coffee, and in addition, when it came to prevention of diseases, a combination approach was more sensible, rather than relying on coffee alone. Consumption of tea, vegetable, fruits and natural products could have better results rather than the narrow focus.

Hensrud concluded by cautioning against drinking too much of coffee, as it could contribute to liver damage and increased blood pressure. The caffeine present could also cause insomnia, gastric reflux, heartburn, palpitations and other undesirable effects.

In fact, coffee drinking could be so addictive that withdrawal symptoms could cause headaches. In addition, it was found that in some cases drinking too much coffee could make it harder to conceive and could increase the risk of miscarriage.

The lesson learned here is that everything should be done in moderation and going overboard could cause trouble all around. A pinch of common sense, a pinch of logic with lots of information thrown in for good measure is essential before embarking on anything.

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FDA Nixes Coffee as an Aphrodisiac

The FDA warned consumers that Magic Power Coffee marketed as an aphrodisiac could have dangerous side effects. According to the MagicPowerCoffee.com website, the brew is an herbal product guaranteed to enhance your sex life.

The FDA argues that Magic Power Coffee is not natural and contains a drug similar to Viagra. Drinking the coffee, the agency says, could result in dizziness and dangerously low blood pressure -- and possibly lead to death. Need a little lovin' in your life? You're safer sticking to oysters.

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Tea and coffee may both offer health benefits

Researchers have found that regular consumption of tea and coffee could be of benefit to health. The journal of the American Heart Association has reported the research which has suggested.

That those who drink more than six cups of tea a day are a third less likely to develop heart problems than those who drink none.

Coffee drinkers also fared well, although not as well as tea drinkers. Those who consumed between two and four cups of coffee a day had a 20 per cent lower risk of heart disease than those who drank little.

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Coffee and tea cut heart disease risk

Drinking coffee or tea in moderation reduces the risk of developing heart disease, according to a new study. Researchers in The Netherlands found that drinking more than six cups of tea per day was associated with a 36 per cent lower risk of heart disease compared to those who drank less than one cup of tea per day.

Drinking three to six cups of tea per day was associated with a 45 per cent reduced risk of death from heart disease, compared to consumption of less than one cup per day. And for coffee, the researchers found that drinkers with a modest intake, two to four cups per day, had a 20 per cent lower risk of heart disease compared to those drinking less than two cups or more than four cups.

Although not considered significant, moderate coffee consumption slightly reduced the risk of heart disease death and deaths from all causes. Researchers also found that neither coffee nor tea consumption affected stroke risk.

“While previous studies have shown that coffee and tea seem to reduce the risk of heart disease, evidence on stroke risk and the risk of death from heart disease was not conclusive. Our results found the benefits of drinking coffee and tea occur without increasing risk of stroke or death from all causes,” said Yvonne T. van der Schouw, study senior author and professor of chronic disease epidemiology, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Van der Schouw and colleagues used a questionnaire to evaluate coffee and tea consumption among 37,514 participants. They followed the participants for 13 years for occurrences of cardiovascular disease and death. Study limitations included self-reported tea and coffee consumption, and the lack of specific information on the type of tea participants drank.

However, black tea accounts for 78 per cent of the total tea consumed in The Netherlands and green tea accounts for 4.6 per cent. Coffee and tea drinkers have very different health behaviors, researchers note. Many coffee drinkers tend to also smoke and have a less healthy diet compared to tea drinkers.

Researchers suggest that the cardiovascular benefit of drinking tea may be explained by antioxidants.Flavonoids in tea are thought to contribute to reduced risk, but the underlying mechanism is still not known. The study has been published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association.

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Coffee: Drink Up to Prevent Diabetes?

Looking for another reason to justify your daily latte? A new study suggests that coffee may guard against diabetes. The study, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, shows that coffee improves insulin sensitivity and helps prevent the development of high blood sugar - at least in lab mice.

If you think you're experiencing déjà vu, it could be because numerous studies have linked coffee - both caffeinated and decaf - with reduced risk not only of diabetes, but also of Alzheimer's disease and prostate cancer. One 2004 study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, showed that the risk of developing type 2 diabetes was as much as 35 percent lower in people who drank four cups of coffee a day.

Pretty convincing stuff. What remains unknown is just what's in coffee that provides the health-protective effects. It could be the caffeine, scientists say, but it could also be the antioxidants, potassium and magnesium found in coffee. More reseach is needed. In the meantime, health experts - including those at the Mayo Clinic - recommend exercise and a healthy diet to guard against diabetes.

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Why coffee may help prevent diabetes

The caffeine in coffee may be the compound that makes coffee help prevent diabetes, researchers in Japan found. Fumihiko Horio of Nagoya University and colleagues fed either water or coffee to a group of laboratory mice. The mice that consumed coffee had lower levels of high-blood sugar and improved insulin sensitivity in the mice -- reducing the risk of diabetes.

Coffee also caused beneficial changes in the fatty liver and inflammatory adipocytokines related to a reduced diabetes risk, Horio said. Caffeine may be "one of the most effective anti-diabetic compounds in coffee," the scientists said in a statement. The study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

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Smell The Coffee

The Celtics won’t need a wake up call for Game 2 of the NBA Finals Sunday. They already got that call during Friday morning’s film session to review the disaster that was their Game 1 performance. Soft, passive and a host of other words were used to describe the Celtics’ performance in a game.

“We needed that,” Celtics reserve guard Tony Allen said Friday afternoon before practice. “We need to smell that coffee, and realize that this is the NBA Finals. We need to approach every game like this is the NBA Finals. We played (Game 1) like this was a December game and we were just going through the motions.”

While the Lakers looked fresh, energetic and aggressive after a nearly week-long break, the Celtics seemed out of sorts from the start. “We looked like that because we were out of sorts,” Kendrick Perkins said. “It was a mess. Normally, we’re on defense and we know how to play off of each other but it was just off this time. It didn’t make sense.”

It didn’t help that the Lakers landed most of the clean punches early and throughout the game. The Celtics weren’t surprised to see that type of effort from the Lakers, “I expected that,” Allen said. “They understood it early, that this is the Finals and we’re going to come out here early and throw our best punch. And we need to be ready to respond.”

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Coffee does NOT wake you up after broken night, according to research

If your early morning nursery or school routine doesn’t start until you’ve had your cup of coffee, it may surprise you to hear that your first sip of the black stuff makes no difference to your daily alertness. It’s apparently all in your mind!

The stimulating effect that coffee gives its drinkers in the morning is simply the body relieving overnight caffeine withdrawal. This means that while it may feel like it’s setting you up for the day, it’s only bringing your body back to its ‘normal’ level of alertness rather than enhancing it.

“Although frequent users feel alerted by caffeine, especially by their morning coffee, evidence suggests that this is actually merely the reversal of fatiguing effects of acute caffeine withdrawal,” says Peter Rogers from Bristol University.

Bristol University researchers studied 379 caffeine and non-coffee drinkers and they found that there were no differences in alertness between the two. They also found that non-coffee drinkers experienced headaches and anxiety after drinking coffee, but felt no more alert than usual.

Not everyone agrees that coffee doesn’t wake us up in the mornings, however. “There is overwhelming wealth of evidence that caffeine does increase alertness levels by acting as a stimulant on the central nervous system by prompting the release of adrenaline,” says Dr Euan Paul from the British Coffee Association. How many cups of coffee do you drink to get you through the day?

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Coffee does not make you more alert: Study

The belief that a cup of coffee stimulates the brain and makes drinkers feel more awake is a myth as scientists have found that the so-called "caffeine high" is just a reaction to the body craving the drug. A study of 379 people showed regular coffee drinkers needed a hit of caffeine to gain the same level of alertness as non-coffee drinkers, The Telegraph reported.

"Our study shows that we don't gain an advantage from consuming caffeine. Although we feel alerted by it, this is caffeine just bringing us back to normal," said Prof. Peter Rogers of the University of Bristol's Department of Experimental Psychology, which led the research.

Researchers deprived each person of coffee for 16 hours before giving the participants either caffeine or a placebo. Each of them then underwent a series of tasks to measure their attentiveness, memory and vigilance.

There was "little difference" in the results between the coffee users and those who were given placebo, found the study, published online in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. "On the other hand, while caffeine can increase anxiety, tolerance means that for most caffeine consumers this effect is negligible," Rogers added.

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Evolution of the Coffee Recipe

Once upon a time, long after coffee was discovered, people used to have it mixed with hot water - plain and simple. There was no coffee recipe concept in existence. Out of the blue - and there are no records about the date - people discovered that while rotating and savoring coffee in their mouth, their taste buds could taste bitterness, acidic content, sweetness and saltiness depending upon how the taste buds sent out the taste signals. People felt that if these tastes were mixed with some other food or beverage, then the coffee taste might be enhanced. They started experimenting with coffee by adding milk, chocolate, and other flavors. This was the birth of the coffee recipe.

Evolution Of The Coffee Recipe

The earliest and best-known coffee recipe to mankind is coffee with milk. Maybe people got bored of drinking coffee with hot water or drinking plain milk, but one fine day they decided to mix coffee with milk and the recipe was a super-hit. The coffee recipe inventors literally tasted blood. Coffee marketers joined hands with them and there was no resting now. After milk came chocolate, after chocolate came flavorings, then syrups and then food and then liqueurs too. The coffee recipe brigade just kept marching on!

The Coffee Recipe In The 21st Century

As things stand now, a coffee recipe is used not just in making basic or designer coffees. A great coffee recipe can be a dessert or a sweet - For example, a basic coffee-based candy can be roasted coffee beans covered with chocolate. Coffee is added even to meats because it brings out the meat flavors with a subtle touch - but not a strong touch - of coffee flavor. So a coffee recipe can relate to basic and designer coffees, desserts as well as meat-foods.

Naming A Coffee Recipe

A coffee recipe concoction is usually called by a fancy name. The basic Café Latte is nothing but coffee with steamed milk (Latte is Italian for milk), a Cappuccino is one-third each of espresso, milk and foam! The Turkish Kahwa is nothing but black coffee brewed along with a few spices (cloves, cardamom, and sometimes even ginger), but people want to have a go at it because of its exotic name. Fancy coffees in cafes are often served with a dash of flavorings or syrups such as caramel, almond, hazelnut, vanilla, etc.

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