COFFEE IS HEALTH FOOD: MYTH or FACT?
Myth or fact? Coffee is good for you. If you chose fact, you’re right. New studies this week add to dozens more reporting the health benefits of coffee, including protection from type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, liver disease, prostate cancer,Alzheimer’s, computer back pain and more.
But if you chose myth, you’d also be right. There are times when it is bad for you, and it depends on your genetics, your age and even how you make your coffee.
Good to the last drop
There are more studies than ever encouraging you to sip for your good health. A huge study of more than 25,000 drinkers in South Korea shows that moderate daily consumption — that’s three to five cups a day — is associated with a decreased risk for coronary artery calcium.
CAC is a great predictor of future heart disease and hasn’t been studied much in the past. Four cups a day was also recently found to moderately reduce one’s risk for melanoma, a highly dangerous skin cancer. It has to be leaded, though; in the study decaffeinated it didn’t provide any protection.
The study supports a previous finding of a link between coffee and a reduced risk for basal cell carcinoma, the most common type of skin cancer. Another recent study looked at coffee consumption and multiple sclerosis.
It found high coffee intake — that’s four to six cups a day — reduced the risk of getting MS. So did drinking a lot of coffee over five to 10 years. Researchers now want to study it’s impact on relapses and long-term disability in MS.
Add this to the existing research on Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and investigators now believe it could be neuroprotective, meaning that it is possible the drink is suppressing the production of inflammatory markers in the brain. And it may be more than the caffeine that's responsible.
Researchers are starting to look at other compounds in it that may help as well. Coffee may reduce women’s cancer risk. Before you run off to your favorite for a double mocha latte, note one thing about these studies.
Most research defines a "cup" of coffee at 5 to 8 ounces, about a 100mg of caffeine, and black or maybe with a bit of cream or sugar. It is not one of those 24-ounce monsters topped with caramel and whipped cream.
