Coffee has a long history of being blamed for many ills — from stunting your growth to claims that it causes heart disease and cancer. But the results of recent research may make us raise the cup in cheer. The results indicate that coffee may not be so bad after all. But, please read on.
Two recent Harvard University studies on coffee and health seem to offer good news for coffee drinkers. Looking at about 1,30,000 study volunteers they observed, “At the start of the study, these healthy men and women were in their 40s and 50s. We followed them for 18 to 24 years, to see who died during that period, and to track their diet and lifestyle habits, including coffee consumption. We did not find any relationship between coffee consumption and increased risk of death from any cause, death from cancer, or death from cardiovascular disease. Even people who drank up to six cups of coffee per day were at no higher risk of death. This finding fits into the research picture that has been emerging over the past few years. For the general population, the evidence suggests that coffee drinking doesn’t have any serious detrimental health effects.”
Coffee can improve your energy levels. It can burn fat and increase your physical performance. Coffee contains several important nutrients, including Riboflavin, Pantothenic Acid, Manganese, Potassium, Magnesium and Niacin. Coffee drinkers apparently have a much lower risk of getting type-II diabetes. They are also at lesser risk of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s. Coffee appears to lower the risk of developing depression and may dramatically reduce the risk of suicide.
Coffee drinkers have a lower risk of liver and colorectal cancer. Coffee may cause mild increase in blood pressure, which usually diminishes over time. Coffee drinkers do not have an increased risk of heart disease and have lower risk of stroke and premature death. Moreover coffee is also a big source of health-friendly antioxidants.
Some people may still want to consider avoiding coffee or switching to decaf, especially women who are pregnant, or people who have a hard time controlling their blood pressure or blood sugar. It’s best to brew coffee with a paper filter, to remove a substance cafestol that causes increases in LDL (bad) cholesterol.
Cafestol is found in the oily fraction of coffee. When you brew coffee with a paper filter, the cafestol gets left behind in the filter. Other methods of coffee preparation, such as the boiled coffee common in Scandinavian countries, French press coffee, or Turkish coffee, are much higher in cafestol. So for people who have high cholesterol levels or who want to prevent having high cholesterol levels, it is better to choose paper filtered coffee or instant coffee, since they have much lower levels of cafestol than boiled or French press coffee.
Espresso is somewhere in the middle. It has less cafestol than boiled or French press coffee, but more than paper filtered coffee. Lots of cream and sugar in your coffee are high in calories and are not doing your health any good.
Why does it seem like scientists keep flip-flopping on whether coffee is bad for you or good for you? Often people think of coffee just as a vehicle for caffeine. But it’s actually a very complex beverage with hundreds and hundreds of different compounds in it. Since coffee contains so many different compounds, drinking coffee can lead to very diverse health outcomes. It can be good for some things and bad for others, and that’s not necessarily flip-flopping. If one looks at the most recent studies to assess coffee consumption and mortality over a long period of time, coffee ensures better overall health.
So, if you like coffee – you can just enjoy it. It seems fine to drink three, four, five cups of coffee a day, at least based on what has been found on the research available. But it’s important to recognize that even the most rigorous scientific studies are subject to bias – especially ones that examine something as beloved and economically important as coffee – so, by all means, enjoy your morning habit, but interpret these findings with caution.
(Dr Francisco Colaço is a consulting physician, pioneer of Echocardiography in Goa)
