Coffee - Yes or No!

Coffee, it gives off a beautiful the aroma, and the flavor makes your mornings so much better! But is our daily cup of coffee doing more harm than good? Coffee is grown in more than 50 countries world wide with about 30 of those countries producing more than 5,000,000 tons of coffee each year.

For many of these countries their economic success pivots on the success of their coffee crops. Brazil is by far the largest supplier of coffee today. Columbia is second with about 2/3rds of Brazil's production. Americans consume more than 1/3rd of the total coffee grown in the world! The green coffee beans come in America through New York, New Orleans and San Francisco and from there are shipped to coffee roasters around country. Hawaii is the only place in the USA where coffee is grown.

How coffee is grown: The ideal conditions for growing excellent Arabica coffees are generally only met in rich, volcanic mountain soil in the coffee-growing countries. The higher elevations cause the coffee bean to grow more slowly, which in turn leads to a more aromatic and flavorful coffee. They include:

temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees F.
even rainfall of 6" per month with a peak wet season;
loamy, fertile, well-drained soil;
high humidity; plenty of mist and cloud;
diffused light and
moderate winds.

Once a coffee bean is planted, it takes five or six years to flower and produce its first good crop of coffee cherries. During that time, the trees are hand tended, hand pruned, weeded and fertilized, often with coffee pulp. When the green cherries ripen to red, they are hand picked one by one. Inside each coffee cherry are two coffee beans. If there is only one bean inside, it's called a pea berry.

Benefits of coffee: After water, coffee is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. Americans drink around 400 million cups every day.

Antioxidants: Coffee is loaded with antioxidants like chlorogenic acid and melanoidins. Antioxidants help prevent oxidation, a process that causes damage to cells and contributes to aging. Melanoidins from roasted coffee have antioxidative effects depending on the way the coffee is treated.

Consistent coffee drinking may protect against Parkinson's disease, though the protective effects are largely lost in women taking hormone replacement therapies.

Diabetes: Coffee consumption is potentially protective against the development of type 2 diabetes. A prospective cohort study as part of the US Nurses Health Study found that moderate consumption of both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee may lower the risk of type 2 diabetes in younger and middle aged women.

Liver cirrhosis: Coffee drinking may protect against liver cirrhosis, especially alcoholic cirrhosis.

Gallstones: There is some evidence that coffee drinking may be protective against gallstone formation in both men and women.

Kidney stones: Coffee consumption lowers the risk of kidney stones formation. Coffee increases the urine volume, preventing the crystallization of calcium oxalate, the most common component of kidney stones.

Coffee is an age-old asthma medication; caffeine is related to theophylline, a compound that helps relax and expand asthmatic lungs. In a 2001 meta-analysis, a UK team of doctors concluded that coffee was a weak, but helpful asthma treatment that could last up to four hours.
Caffeine increases alertness and mental performance by blocking adenosine, one biomolecule responsible for creating that feeling of drowsiness. who drank 4 or more cups per day cut their risk of cirrhosis by 80%. Especially good news for fans of Irish coffees.

Consequences of coffee- As it is rightly said "too much of everything is bad". Most of the bad effects of coffee only begin to kick in at the heavy-drinker levels. Two cups a day or so seems to be safe enough and should still give the benefits. However lets talk about the "bad" effects-

Heart disease: The relation between coffee consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease has been examined in many studies, but the results remain controversial. Most prospective cohort studies have not found coffee consumption to be associated with significantly increased cardiovascular disease risk.

Cholesterol: Heavy consumption of boiled coffee elevates blood total and LDL cholesterol ("bad cholesterol") levels. Unfiltered coffee contains two cholesterol-raising compounds cafestol and kahweol.

Blood pressure: Although coffee consumption is not a significant risk factor for hypertension, it produces unfavorable effects on blood pressure and people prone to hypertension may be more susceptible. Recent Italian study found that coffee drinking can slightly increase the risk for development of sustained hypertension in persons with elevated blood pressure.

Coffee contains two cholesterol-raising compounds cafestol and kahweol, though these can be nearly eliminated by using filters (and some evidence suggests they may even be anti-cancer agents themselves).
Osteoporosis: Coffee intake may induce an extra urinary excretion of calcium. Heavy coffee consumption (4 cups=600 ml or more) can modestly increase the risk of osteoporosis, especially in women with a low calcium intake.

Do you want to drink a cup of liquid black forest cake? Then try this....

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