Coffee, it seems, has gotten a bad rap -- blamed for heart problems, higher cholesterol, and hyperactivity. Now many researchers believe that not only is coffee not harmful, but it should be put in the category of health food. A study published Thursday in the journal Stroke finds that drinking coffee lowers stroke risk in women by 22 to 25 percent over a decade.
Perhaps it's time for coffee to push aside green tea. "I think it's actually more healthful than tea," contends Dr. Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. As an investigator on the Harvard Nurses' Health Study, Hu should know. He's identified a connection between coffee consumption and lower diabetes risk.
In recent years, coffee drinkers have been found to have a reduced risk of gallstones, colon cancer, liver disease, and Parkinson's. Long-distance athletes also have increased endurance if they drink coffee before a race.
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3 comments:
I am enjoying my cup of joe right now.
Quick! Before the next scientific report comes out!
It used to be thought that coffee would dehydrate you, thus athletes weren't supposed to drink it before a race. Now we know better -- yes, it'll make your kidneys work harder, but it'll also make *all* of you work harder, so on a water-balance basis it's a wash. That is, it takes you longer to run the race if you don't drink coffee before the race, so you end up excreting the same amount of water anyhow.
The only real downside of coffee is that a significant number of have a gene that makes caffeine take 12 hours to clear from our system, so we can't drink coffee after noon or we can't sleep at night. Bummer :(.
- Badtux the Caffeinated Penguin
(I had... hmm... 4? 5? cups of coffee today?)
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