Drink coffee, live longer

I don't know why I am as interested in coffee as I am, except I always associate coffee with my father. It's nice to see that coffee has healthy side-effects.

You can find the other references to coffee by typing coffee in the search box on the upper left of this blog.

People who rely on a cup of joe to wake up or power through the day could be adding years to their lives. Two sweeping new studies reveal that a coffee habit could boost longevity by reducing the risk of death from heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and kidney disease. “If you like to drink coffee, drink up,” researcher Veronica Setiawan of the University of Southern California tells ScienceDaily.com. “If you’re not a coffee drinker, then you need to consider if you should start.” Setiawan’s team examined data on nearly 186,000 adults of various races and ethnicities. The results showed mortality risk dropped 12 percent for those who drank just one cup of coffee each day while two to three cups brought even better odds—18 percent. Another study analyzed the link between coffee and prolonged life span among more than 500,000 Europeans who were followed for about 16 years. Men who drank the most coffee had a 12 percent lower risk of early death. For women, the risk dropped 7 percent. Coffee contains a complex mixture of powerful antioxidants, but it’s unclear what accounts for the drink’s benefits. Apparently it’s not the caffeine—in both studies, researchers found decaf just as effective.

Taken from the July 28th edition of The Week magazine.

Coffee’s protective effect

Haven't we talked about this before? Why are we making more studies of the issue?

People who over-indulge in alcohol and food risk serious damage to their livers, but a new study suggests that they might benefit from an extra cup of joe, The Washington Post reports. New research has found that drinking more coffee could help safeguard the liver, which is crucial to many metabolic processes. Researchers analyzed data from nine previously published studies, encompassing more than 430,000 participants, and found that drinking two additional cups of coffee a day was associated with a 44 percent lower risk of developing cirrhosis. A potentially fatal condition with no cure, cirrhosis involves the hardening and destruction of liver tissue, and kills more than 1 million people a year worldwide. Apart from alcohol consumption, cirrhosis may be caused by hepatitis infections, immune disorders, and fatty liver disease, which is tied to obesity and diabetes. How java works its magic on the liver is unclear, but study author Oliver Kennedy says it’s nice to know that you can get such large benefits from “a cheap, ubiquitous, and well-tolerated beverage.”

Taken from the March 11th edition of The Week Magazine.

Coffee & Bugs!

Goody, goody - insect protein with my morning cup of coffee; what could be better and more efficient? And the fact that the borer sex is incestuous, well that keeps us right in line with previous posts about Queen Mother Cersei. Perfect.

A study from the University of Sao Paulo published in the Journal of Insect Behavior describes the shocking behavior of coffee berry borers. These insects, which Discovery News calls "the most serious pests of coffee plants worldwide," have sex in coffee beans before they're roasted into the delicious drink.

The coffee berry borers are a type of beetle native to Africa. The females are just .07 inches long, and the males are about .06 inches long — tiny enough to get down inside coffee beans.

That's not even the weirdest part — the beetles' coffee bean sex is also incestuous. Weliton Dias Silva, author of the study, writes that females "have to be copulated by their sibling males before leaving the native coffee fruit to improve their chances of successful colonization." And sometimes, females don't even need their brothers — they can reproduce on their own, through parthenogenesis.

So how can you tell if your coffee beans are the site of insect sex? Discovery News reports that the female beetles bore "minute holes" to escape from the beans, and the beans may also seem more hollow than others. If you're a fan of Coffee arabica, you might be more at risk — it's also the beetles' coffee of choice. You probably shouldn't be too concerned, though, because most of the "infested" beans are taken off the market.

By Meghan DeMaria

Aren't you curious what Herb is up to? I am, you'd think I'd get back to him.

One Cup of Coffee Could Offset Three Drinks a Day

One would think I am obsessed with coffee. I am not, it just seems to be in the news a lot recently. One can find previous posts here, here and here.

So, a nice cup of coffee after a wonderful dinner is just the ticket.

Crap - but it might not be as beneficial for women as it is for men. Dang!

(Photo : By Jon Sullivan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

On top of waking you up in the morning, a new study suggests that one cup of coffee can actually offset the negative physical effects of three alcoholic drinks a day.

You have probably already heard that coffee actually provides many health benefits. The morning pick-me-up is also a diuretic for the digestive system, which can be both beneficial and harmful at the same time. For example, it can cause dehydration and even gastritis, but it can also help keep things flowing normally so to speak. In addition, it is also an anti-inflammatory and some studies have even shown that it can prevent cancer.

Alcohol, while often lifting spirits, is actually really bad for you. It is a burden on the endocrine system and it can damage the stomach, liver, kidneys, and even the heart. Some studies have even shown that it can cause cancer.

In a new study from the World Cancer Research Fund, researchers have proven that coffee can actually offset the negative cancer causing effects of alcohol. In the report from the WCRF, researchers analyzed global studies on cancer and the probable causes of cancer. In the study of 8 million people, cancer risk increased when they consumed three drinks per day. However, the study also found that people who also drank coffee, offset some of the negative effects of alcohol.

So how much coffee do you need to drink to shield yourself from the cancer causing effects of alcohol? The study shows it could be as little as one cup a day.

The study looked at 24,500 liver cancer cases and according to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center epidemiologist Dr. Anne McTiernan, the findings prove the "clearest indication to date of how many drinks actually cause liver cancer."

"The evidence for coffee was generally consistent, and the dose-response meta-analysis showed a significant decreased risk of liver cancer per one cup per day. This was consistent with findings from three published meta-analyses. When stratified by sex, the association was significant for men but not for women," the study said.

More importantly, the panel found that as little as one cup of coffee per day could actually reduce the risk of liver cancer in most people who would consume about 45 grams (roughly equivalent to about three drinks) of alcohol per day.

So what does this mean for you? Well, if you had three drinks the night before you definitely shouldn't skip that Starbucks the next day. If you do, you could be putting yourself at a greater risk for cancer.

Original article by Brian Wu, taken from ScienceTimes.com

Falling soda sales: Not a trend, but a fundamental shift

And then we have this, so I should be hopeful for the health of my fellow Americans. Nice to hear after this previous blog post.

Coca-Cola and Pepsico must be judged not on whether they can resurrect their flagship brands, but on how well they can manage those brands’ decline.

FORTUNE — Soft-drink sales have been declining for nine straight years. This is much more than a trend — it’s a fundamental shift in consumer tastes that poses a major problem for soda makers, no matter how diversified their product portfolios might be.

The latest numbers are astonishing, but not surprising. Sales of soda fell 3% by volume in 2013, to the lowest levels since 1995, according to a report from Beverage Digest issued on Monday. That would be a big drop no matter what, but it’s also more than double 2012’s decline. People are moving away from soda at an accelerating rate.

At this point, companies like Coca-Cola KO -0.74% and Pepsico PEP -0.66% must be judged not on what they’re doing to save their flagship brands, but on how well they’re managing those brands’ decline. Of course that’s not easy for companies that are named for those very brands, so they’re still going nuts trying to figure out how to at least staunch the losses, even as they wisely continue to invest in alternatives like energy drinks, sports drinks, and flavored water

Among many other initiatives, Pepsico tried a new bottle design for Pepsi, and it signed Beyoncé to a $50 million endorsement deal. Coke hired clothier Marc Jacobs as its “creative director.” Sales have continued to plummet.

And the hoped-for savior of the business — diet drinks with artificial sweeteners — are no help. Up until a few years ago, sales of diet sodas were falling at about the same rate as the sugar-filled ones. Now they’re actually falling faster as consumers continue to hear about health concerns. Just yesterday, a study was released indicating that consumption of diet soda can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in older women.

But health concerns are not the only problem. If they were, it would seem unlikely that energy drinks, sports beverages, coffee-based beverages, and flavored waters would be taking up the slack. But they are. That’s a further indication that what’s doing soda in is the proliferation of choices in the beverage aisle, especially those aimed at young people, an increasing number of whom think of Coke, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, and Pepsi — Beyoncé notwithstanding — as the stuff their grandparents drank in the olden days.

by Dan Mitchell @thefoodeconomy APRIL 1, 2014, 6:38 PM EDT

Diet Soda's fatty downside

Another study to encourage all to eschew all sodas, both regular and diet. Three times as much belly fat than non diet soda drinkers! My goodness, reason enough there. And ok, do we really think it's because diet-soda-drinkers think they can eat more pizza and other things rather than an effect on the body itself? I suspect it has more to do with chemicals, but I am guessing, I have no scientific knowledge. Shall we say a 'gut' feeling? I am convinced it is an issue with the microbes in our bellies, as discussed here previously.

People over age 65 who drink diet soda daily tend to expand their waistlines by much more than peers who prefer other beverages, possibly contributing to chronic illnesses that go along with excess belly fat, according to a new study.

Research in other age groups has directly associated drinking sodas that replace sugar with artificial sweeteners and increased risk of diabetes, metabolic syndrome and preterm birth, said lead author Dr. Sharon P.G. Fowler of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

The new study only observed people over time, and did not test whether drinking diet soda actually caused gains in abdominal fat, she cautioned. “We can’t prove causality but there is quite a consistency in observational studies,” Fowler told Reuters Health

For older people, who are already at increased risk for heart and metabolic diseases, increasing belly fat with age just adds to health risk, Fowler and her colleagues write.

To see what role diet soda might play, the study team followed people over age 65 for an average of nine years. The study started with physical examinations and questions about daily soda intake among 749 people who were over age 65 when first examined between 1992 and 1996. By 2003-2004, 375 participants were still living and had returned for three more examinations.

People who reported not drinking diet soda gained an average of 0.8 inches in waist circumference over the nine-year period compared to 1.83 inches for occasional diet soda drinkers and more than three inches for people who drank diet soda every day, according to the results in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The authors had taken other factors like physical activity, diabetes and smoking into account.

“It cannot be explained by the calories,” said Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who was not involved in the study.

People who drink diet soda may be more likely to overeat in other areas, he told Reuters Health.

“The main point is for those who drink a lot of soda, diet or not, there may be a relationship with obesity,” Lopez-Jimenez said.

“I think it probably is true that for some people, if they are not being really hardcore about losing weight and getting a healthier lifestyle, if they switch over to diet soda that allows them to have an extra slice of pizza or a candy bar,” which translates to actually consuming more calories than would have been in a can of regular soda, Fowler said.

But another possibility is that there is a real causal relationship at the molecular level, which she believes is the case.

Diet sodas are very acidic, more so even than acid rain, and the acidity or the artificial sweeteners may have a direct impact on things like gut microbes, which influence how we absorb nutrients, Fowler noted.

“Calorie free does not equal consequence free,” she said.

Although it’s still unclear if diet soda actually causes dangerous changes to health, Fowler hopes that frequent users will try to wean themselves onto other beverages, like fresh brewed coffee, tea or mineral water with natural juices added.

“It’s possible to find things without sweeteners or dose the sweetener themselves,” she said.

The study doesn’t justify a recommendation to avoid soda, but it does very clearly show that drinking diet soda does not lead to weight loss, Lopez-Jimenez said.

And can we all scream for the irony of this little image at the end of the article:

I copied this article from Reuters.com. "Drinking diet soda linked to a widening waistline with age" BY KATHRYN DOYLE

The government thinks you should probably drink more coffee

Taken from The Week Magazine again.... This time they seem to give credit to Peter Weber.

Not that I am obsessed with coffee or anything, it's just a fond memory I have of my father, (and I *do* enjoy it) so I will continue to mention it. We have discussed it here and here, previously.

When an expert U.S. panel released new dietary guidelines last week, its embrace of the egg got most of the attention. But the federal Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee also weighed in for the first time on a topic near and dear to many American hearts and brains: Coffee.

"Currently, strong evidence shows that consumption of coffee within the moderate range (3 to 5 cups per day or up to 400 mg/d caffeine) is not associated with increased long-term health risks among healthy individuals," the panel wrote. "In fact, consistent evidence indicates that coffee consumption is associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in healthy adults."

In interviews, panel members were more effusive. "Coffee's good stuff,” Cornell nutritionist Tom Brenna tells Bloomberg. "I don’t want to get into implying coffee cures cancer — nobody thinks that," but the evidence points to benefits, not health risks.

"That's great news if you're already drinking between three and five cups each day," notes Roberto A. Ferdman at The Washington Post. But "you probably aren't, because people in this country actually tend to consume a lot less than that. On average, Americans only drink about one cup of coffee per day." It's Monday morning and the weather is probably terrible: Have another cup. Peter Weber