Coffee: It’s Good For You, It’s Bad For You Depending On Who Did the Testing

Every morning approximately 100 million people in the United States drink their first cup of coffee, typically within their first hour of waking up. More than half of coffee drinkers acknowledge that they feel better—more like themselves—after their morning cup of the hot, dark liquid. It’s the caffeine in coffee that delivers a boost to our nervous systems.

Coffee is an efficient caffeine delivery system, and the popularity of drinking coffee is reflected in the estimated $40 billion Americans spend on it each year. That annual consumption amounts to twelve million pounds of coffee beans. The beans, once roasted and ground, get brewed with hot water and provide a steamy drink; it delivers the caffeine that gives most people a desired overall feeling of wellbeing.

Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant. Because caffeine is in coffee beans, it’s the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive drug. But unlike many other psychoactive substances, caffeine is legal and unregulated in nearly all parts of the world. In addition to coffee, caffeine is in many foods and drinks including tea, soft drinks, cocoa and chocolate. It’s also in some prescription and nonprescription drugs such as ones used to treat colds, allergies and pain.

The type of coffee beans and the way they are processed varies the amount of caffeine in an 8oz. cup of regular coffee. Most tests involving coffee drinkers use a standard of 50 milligrams of caffeine per cup. The rule of thumb usually given by doctors is that drinking more than six cups a day of regular coffee, about 300 milligrams, is excessive and can lead to health problems.

Studies from well-established research companies and universities push the pendulum of good and bad things about coffee back and forth repeatedly. News sources intensified fearful reports about the bad health risks of coffee drinking more than 30 years ago. However, the most recent eye-opening reports about the benefits of coffee consumption were spread within the last two months by several media. 

Some of the health benefits of drinking coffee supposedly include the following items, some of which seem outlandish and impossible. At any rate, these reports were released to the public:

• Regular coffee drinkers are 80% less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease;
• Two cups a day cut the risk of gallstones in half;
• Two cups a day caused an 80% drop in the risk of developing cirrhosis;
• Two cups a day reduced the risk of colon cancer by 20 percent.

Older studies of coffee consumption during the last 30 years suggest that caffeine is beneficial in treating asthma, stopping headaches, boosting mood and even preventing cavities in teeth.

The pendulum swings to the bad effects of coffee drinking, depending who is conducting the studies. Caffeine results in negative effects on the nervous system. It has a record of increasing anxiety, stress, and food cravings. The cause of damaging sleep quality has long been an accepted effect of caffeine.

Consuming added calories with no nutritional value is an overlooked problem of coffee. People who drink restaurant and specialty store coffees often overlook how much the flavoring and creamers add calories and fat to their favorite, frothy drinks.

Consumers line up on the pro or con sides of the effects of coffee drinking according to whether they like drinking it or not. Most doctors agree that coffee, like almost everything we enjoy consuming, won’t harm us if we practice moderation.

Much of the data presented here were found on Wikipedia. Information used from other institutions who participated in studies of the effects of coffee drinking included John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD; Rutgers University of Public Health, New Brunswick, NJ; and Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute, Tampa, FL.

If you ever wondered where the phase “a of cup joe” for a drink of coffee came from, you can choose from two popular origins. Some wordsmiths say that joe is a reference to an average person—someone with a common background. Therefore, the common drink among the masses became called “a cup of joe.” The timeline of this phrase is buried in history.

A more interesting and colorful explanation of the phrase comes from a recorded event in 1914. Josephus Daniels, then Secretary of the Navy, banned all alcoholic beverages from United States ships. Sailors objected to the order but had no choice after alcohol, long a staple on ships, was banned. The Navy personnel substituted the only strong drink available—coffee. In a protest to the secretary’s rule, the enlisted men named their coffee after Josephus, calling it “a cup of joe.”    

Thanks for reading this blog. Another interesting subject will be in this space next month. See my website at www.joevlatino.com.