Are you enjoying a cup of coffee in the morning, while reading your favorite newspaper or just relaxing after working eight-hours? Well, keep on sipping, because its not just a simple beverage to buzz you up, it has health benefits.
According to a WebMD report, coffee is a rich source of disease-fighting antioxidants.
This type of antioxidant, along with the magnesium found naturally in coffee, affect blood sugar levels and are thought to be responsible for the link to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
The study ranked black tea as second source of antioxidants, and bananas as third, in the average American diet.
Tomas DePaulis, PhD, research scientist at Vanderbilt University's Institute of Coffee Studies said that their research shows that coffee is far more healthful than it is harmful.
The studies have shown that regular coffee drinkers can reduce their risk of Parkinson's disease by 80 percent, the risk of colon cancer by 25 percent, the risk of cirrhosis of the liver by 80 percent, and cut the risk of gallstones in half.
People who drank two cups a day of decaf coffee had half the risk of rectal cancer, compared with tea or caffeinated coffee drinkers.
De Paulis added that it only gives a very little bad effect, but a lot of good.
Coffee becomes the number one anti-oxidant in America, WebMD said.
But researchers pointed out that caffeine can also be found in coffee. Caffeine is a drug, can be abused when use in place of a good night's rest or a healthy diet.
The report said that an eight-ounce cup of drip coffee has 85 milligrams of caffeine.
It was learned that a standard dose of pain reliever with caffeine usually has 120 milligrams. Courtesy Cherry Mario-allheadlinenews.com
It might look like a nice cup of cappuccino, but a Phoenix company's new concoction is strictly for the dogs.
DoggyLicious LLC is now selling its Doggy Java online and expects it to hit stores by December. The vitamin drink comes in a coffee bag, looks like coffee when mixed with water, is served in a "canine cappuccino cup" and comes with a Bonescotti biscuit.
Doggy Java is the first product on the market to induce a dog's desire to drink water and at the same time provide vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, said Mari Justin, the creator of Doggy Java. The beef-flavored, liquid vitamin treat may look like coffee but contains no caffeine.
"The days of hiding their pills in cheese, peanut butter or other foods are over. Doggy Java has created a fun new way for your pet to get its daily vitamins while enjoying a tasty treat," Justin said in a release announcing the new product.
Doggy Java won first and second place in the New Product Awards Dog category at SuperZoo 2007, a national show for pet retailers. For more: www.doggyjava.com. Taken from http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2007/11/12/daily34.html
Doctors have long argued about the health effects of coffee, but its reputation seems likely to receive a boost thanks to a flavoured condom that aims to encourage safer sex in Ethiopia.
Around 300,000 of the coffee condoms were sold in a week when they were launched in September, according to the US charity DKT International.
It hopes to tap into Ethiopia's coffee mania as a means to tackle high rates of HIV in the country, which is said to have invented the drink.
The charity said that with 2.1% of Ethiopians infected with Aids - and more than 7% in the capital, Addis Ababa - the flavoured prophylactic was more than a novelty. "Everybody likes the flavour of coffee," said a spokeswoman.
The condoms are sold in packs of three for 1 birr, or about about half the price of a cup of coffee in Addis Ababa's cafes, and much cheaper than most other condom brands.
The dark brown condoms are made to smell like Ethiopia's popular macchiato, an espresso with a generous amount of cream and sugar.
"It is about time to use an Ethiopian flavour for beautiful Ethiopian girls," said Dereje Alemu, 19, a university student.
The product was developed after complaints by some users about the latex scent of plain condoms.
DTK has introduced flavoured condoms in other parts of the world in an attempt to appeal to local tastes.
These include condoms scented with the infamously stinky durian fruit in Indonesia, and sweetcorn-fragranced condoms in China. The charity's latest condom has attracted some criticism in deeply conservative Ethiopia.
"It's inappropriate," said Bedilu Assefa, a spokesman for the Ethiopian Orthodox church, whose millions of followers are encouraged to abstain from sex outside marriage. "We're proud of our coffee."
But even those not sold on the idea of coffee condoms recognise the importance of safe sex. "I hate coffee-flavoured condoms," said Tadesse Teferi, 37, a mechanic. "But I use ordinary condoms when I have sex with ladies other than my wife."
Taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2204492,00.html
Worried about how much coffee intake you have everyday?!? Here's the good news - new scientific research shows the potential health benefits a cup of coffee can do to you - whether it's caffeinated or decaf.
Drinking coffees have been know to be antioxidants, providing protection against certain types of diabetes and cancer. It is even said to hold the secret in curing male baldness, among others.
Recently, the evidence linking coffee drinking and the protection against diabetic diseases seems to be getting more substantial, as scientists investigate the beverage's effect. Based from the study of some Harvard University scientists, over a period of 10 years - more than 88,000 women, aged 26 to 46 years old, found that drinking coffees daily were connected to a decreased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
But don't start gulping coffee as a liquid health food. As the old cliche goes, anything taken in excessive would dangerous to your health. After all, moderation is still the best strategy. For many people, drinking too much coffee may cause indigestion. Contrary to popular belief, it's not just the caffeine, some coffee beans can yield higher level of acids, which can be an irritant to our stomach.
Another research in California shows that among more than 125,000 people studied for up to 22 years, coffee drinkers were less likely to be diagnosed with alcoholic cirrhosis. Additionally, coffee seems to offer protection against Parkinson's disease, although more for men than for women.
Interestingly, "coffee was once labelled as a culprit in raising artery-clogging LDL cholesterol levels. But researchers found that only unfiltered or boiled coffee, or that made using a French press, contained cafestol and kahweol, the compounds with the cholesterol-raising effects. In heart health research, sipping excess coffee has been linked to high blood pressure, but we'll see more research there," as published in Homemakers.com
Freshly brewed research reports about coffee are changing the image of the popular drink from harmful to healthy in many ways.
Thanks to some of the latest knowledge about coffee reported in April at the Experimental Biology 2007 symposium in Washington, D.C., negative myths about coffee are evaporating. "The good news is it seems an extremely popular beverage can be safely consumed by most people in moderation," said Joan Salge Blake, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association and nutrition professor at Boston University.
"It doesn't look like there is any downside to coffee in any disease process," said Dr. Craig McClain, professor of medicine, pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Louisville, who attended the spring meeting.
The story about coffee grew dark and negative a decade or more ago when a study linked pancreatic cancer to caffeine, a link that has since been debunked, McClain explained.
"That got everybody down on coffee, but more recently in diverse areas research is suggesting that coffee -- at least in moderate consumption -- can be beneficial," he said.
Studies of large populations of real coffee drinkers are pointing in a positive direction.
New research suggests coffee can reduce the risk of such major diseases as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and type 2 diabetes.
"Animal studies suggest it might even be good for weight control through thermogenesis (the process by which the body generates heat, or energy, by increasing the metabolic rate above normal)," McClain said. "Drink six cups of coffee a day and you may have an energy expenditure of 100 calories."
In studies of mortality, it appears that moderate coffee drinkers have a slightly reduced risk of death, McClain also reported.
Good for the liver
One promising thread of coffee research indicates coffee may lower bad liver enzymes called cytokines. "Coffee looks like it may be good in those with liver disease and certainly not harmful," he said. The mechanism for how this works isn't understood yet, he added.
Everybody thinks about caffeine, an alkaloid that acts as a mild stimulant, when they think of coffee, partly because old coffee research emphasized it. Much of the current research is saying the possible benefits of moderate coffee consumption have little or nothing to do with its caffeine content.
Coffee, after all, contains antioxidants and phytochemicals. It is made up of hundreds of components such as magnesium, potassium, vitamin B3, amino acids and lignans, a weak form of estrogen found in fruits, cereals, flaxseed and vegetables.
Experts caution that moderate coffee drinking is what people should keep in mind.
Moderate consumption means two to three eight-ounce cups a day to Marsha Hilgeford, a Louisville dietitian and diabetes counselor at Baptist Hospital. McClain would say two to four cups daily constitutes moderation.
Hilgeford recommends drinking filtered coffee because some research has shown that unfiltered coffee, such as that made in a French plunger-style coffee maker, can boost cholesterol levels. What gets through in unfiltered coffee are diterpenes, found in the oil droplets floating in the coffee as well as in the sediment. Athletic endurance
Some endurance athletes have long ranked coffee important to their performance. Last April, the Journal of Sports Science published a study that found caffeine had a positive impact on the performance of male distance runners. In November, the same journal printed another study that examined whether cyclists could improve their sprinting with caffeine and found they did.
But a third study published last year in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that two cups of coffee reduced blood flow to the heart during exercise by 22 percent and by 39 percent if the exercise was done in a high altitude chamber used to simulate the way coronary artery disease would limit the amount of oxygen that gets to the heart.
Those with coronary heart disease or heart health risk should talk to their doctors about how much coffee to drink before exercise.
Experts certainly don't advocate taking up coffee drinking if you don't drink it now or loading up on more coffee based on the good-benefits research that is emerging.
Hilgeford, while not down on coffee as a beverage, doesn't think it should be viewed as some magic elixir either. She strongly believes everyone is an individual when it comes to coffee and that they should test their reaction to it.
If they experience anxiety, jitters or insomnia, they should reconsider coffee consumption. And if they have other concerns about their use of coffee, by all means, they should talk to their doctor, experts said.
Courtesy Linda Stahl, The Courier-Journal and GJ Coffee Companion
United States scientists have said the combination of daily exercise and a cup of coffee may prevent skin cancers.
Past researches have shown that moderate consumption of coffee may offer some health benefits.
Coffee may help manage asthma and even control attacks when medication is unavailable, stop a headache, boost mood and even prevent cavities, the studies had found.
A new study by scientists at Rutgers University in New Jersey shows that a low to moderate intake of caffeine combined with exercise can be good for health and prevent skin damage caused by the sun's ultraviolet rays.
They arrived at this conclusion after conducting a study on mice, reported health portal News Medical.
For the study, the researchers used groups of hairless mice, whose skin is extremely vulnerable to the sun.
One group was given caffeinated water to drink, the equivalent of up to two cups of coffee for humans, another group voluntarily exercised on a running wheel, a third group both drank caffeine and ran, while a fourth group neither ran nor drank caffeine and acted as the control group.
All the mice were then exposed to lamps that generated ultraviolet radiation that damages the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in their skin cells.
They were then examined for evidence of programmed cell death, also known as apoptosis, which is the process by which cells with badly damaged DNA destroy themselves as a natural defence against illness and infection.
The scientists found that compared to the ultraviolet radiation exposed control group, the caffeine drinkers showed an increase of about 95 percent in ultraviolet radiation induced apoptosis, the exercisers showed a 120 percent increase, while the mice that were both drinking and exercising showed a nearly 400 percent increase.
One of the study's authors Allan Conney said if apoptosis takes place in a sun-damaged cell, its progress towards cancer will be aborted.
The team who reported their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said drugs that induce apoptosis are currently being researched as a method of preventing different types of cancer but the combination of caffeine and exercise appears to have a similar protective.
For all those men who would do anything to stop their hairlines from receding, it might just be time to give hair weaving, toupees and wigs the boot, for a new research has found that coffee could hold the key for making their woe disappear.
The study, carried out by a team of researchers led by Dr Tobias Fischer at the University of Jena in Germany, found that caffeine stimulates the growth tiny follicles, the tiny sacs in the scalp from which hair grows, in men who are starting to lose their hair.
The researchers noted that caffeine helps slow baldness in men by blocking the effects of a chemical known to damage hair follicles.
However, before you reach for that cup of coffee, you have to know that researchers estimate that up to 60 cups a day would be the amount needed for significant amounts to reach follicles in the scalp.
Researchers are nonetheless, optimistic that caffeine can be a "promising candidate for hair growth stimulation".
"Caffeine is a well-known substance, yet little is known about its effect on human hair follicle growth. But this study shows it's a promising candidate for hair growth stimulation," the Daily Mail quoted him, as saying.
Now, German cosmetics firm Alpecin has developed a caffeine-rich solution that can be rubbed on the scalp.
Most baldness is caused when hair follicles become exposed to too much dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, a chemical produced by the male hormone testosterone.
Based on this, experts believe that men with high levels of testosterone are more likely to lose their hair.
As a part of the study, Dr Fischer took scalp biopsies from 14 men in the early stages of hair loss.
He then extracted hair follicles and placed them in test tubes with solutions containing different levels of caffeine. The samples were then monitored for a period of eight days.
The researchers found that caffeine had boosted the length of the hairs by between 33 per cent and 40 per cent.
"Hair follicles that were treated with caffeine showed a highly significant growth rate at 24 hours, and still showed further significant growth at eight days," said Dr Fischer.
With all the medicines now on the market for aches and pains, a new study says all you need may be a cup of coffee.
Since a lot of people are taking up new exercise programs, more and more are experiencing soreness in muscles they didn't even know they had. And when that happens, people usually resort to stretching, icing and popping some ibuprofen.
But recently,some doctors found out that people who have a cup of coffee every couple of hours before a workout were able to cut their muscle soreness by half.
In fact, for almost everyone, the coffee worked better than the stretching or ibuprofen.
Doctors aren't really sure how the coffee helps but think the caffeine causes pain fibers to be less sensitive, and might help neutralize the chemicals that causes inflammation and muscle soreness.
So, if you're not a big coffee drinker, this might be a help for you. If you already are a person who likes their coffee, you might check it out to see if it helps.
Moderate consumption of coffee, an all-world beverage, if ever there was one, is being shown to have generally positive and protective effects on the emergence of disease conditions according to this month's issue of Food Technology magazine.
In its regular Food, Medicine & Health column, Food Technology reports that recent studies of coffee in combination with reviews of research gathered over the past 30 years reveal that consumption improves glucose regulation and lowers the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, among other favorable effects.
"Many negative health myths about coffee drinking may now be transformed into validated health benefits," says the column's co-author, Roger A. Clemens, a functional food expert with the Institute of Food Technologists and nutritional biochemist.
"Scientific evidence now suggests that moderate coffee consumption 3 to 5 cups a day may be associated with reduced risks of certain disease conditions," he says, such as Alzheimer's disease, kidney stones, depression, and others."
Another area of coffee's positive affect on the body is its possible cancer-protective properties, possibly due to its naturally occurring and brewing-produced antioxidants.
Some research strongly links coffee's properties to protect blood vessels from dilating as one possible mechanism that brain cells use to defend against Parkinson's disease. One cup of coffee a day may as much as halve the risk of developing this disease, the article states.
New research shows that drinking coffee can protect people from developing spasms in their eyelids, a condition known as blepharospasm.
Scientists at the University of Bari in Italy have been studying the link between drinking one or two cups of coffee a day and the frequency of eyelid twitches in sufferers of the condition, which in extreme cases can cause blindness.
They found that coffee reduced the risk of the condition and had a protective effect against involuntary and sustained muscle contractions in the eye.
"Sometimes the condition is so bad that the patients spend most of the time with their eyes closed - they are effectively then visually impaired," said Professor Giovanni Defazio, who led the study.
"Our findings strongly suggest coffee as a protective factor. The most obvious candidate for the protective effect is caffeine," he added.
Blepharospasm typically affects those aged between 50 and 70 and develops slowly, beginning with symptoms such as eye discomfort and increased blinking.
There is much to be said about the perfect cup of coffee, and yet so much is clouded by old wives’ tales and misinformation. What counts is simple math and physics, and as long as you understand the chemistry of coffee you can produce a perfect cup every time.
Grind
The finer you grind the coffee beans, the more character you will get from each bean. In other words, more flavor can be extracted from the same amount of beans if they are ground finer. But it’s the type of coffee making equipment you own that will determine what grind you can get away with.
The reason is due to the flavor compounds present in a coffee bean. “Good” flavors are extracted early in the brewing process, while “bad” flavors come out later. Allowing the grounds to come in contact with too much water will lead to over-extraction and a nasty tasting brew. Your equipment will determine how much water comes into contact with your grounds and for how long.
An espresso machine, on the fine end of the scale, is designed to force a small amount of water through very tightly packed and finely ground coffee. The idea is to get a concentrate of only the best tasting flavors. Therefore, it is critical to have an even grind.
Contaminants
Your cup of brew can have anything from chlorine, minerals, salts, heavy metals, and even traces of diesel in it. Ninety-nine percent of these are the fault of your water source.
Use a charcoal filter to clean the water you use to brew with. These come in models that attach to your faucet or can be installed over the intake valve of your coffee maker. Make sure you replace the filter according to the maker’s guidelines or when you can taste a drop in the quality of your water. It would help to purchase a small bottle of filtered water to use as your base of comparison.
If you use a drip coffee maker, use unbleached paper filters or permanent gold wire mesh filters. For the later, be sure to rinse them well in fresh water.
Quantities
One level tablespoon of coffee per cup is the standard and works well regardless of your coffee maker. We do not recommend making batches any larger than 10 cups at a time, since the higher volume of water will cause over-extraction.
Some drip coffee makers come with a dial on top of the unit that allows a portion of the hot water to go directly into the pot without passing through the grounds first. These dials allow less water to pass through the coffee, avoiding over-extraction and producing a stronger brew. It is diluted back to normal strength by the water that bypasses the coffee grounds.
Age
Coffee releases six times its volume in carbon dioxide within the first 48 hours of roasting.Green coffee is almost impervious to aging and can be stored in your cellar for years. But once it’s roasted, the flavor degrades immediately and gets worse over time. If you really like the taste of coffee, know that it all comes from the skill of the roaster.
Keep a mill-type grinder next to your coffee machine and grind only enough coffee for the pot you’re about to make.
Never ever use the “community grinders” present in the coffee aisles of supermarkets. Who knows what has been put through them or when they were last cleaned.
Once the coffee is brewed, switch off the heating element and serve the beverage immediately. If you find that you are brewing more than you can drink at once, consider either making smaller batches or storing the remainder in a thermal flask. Do not microwave cold coffee and do not switch the heating element back on.
The perfect cup of coffee takes practice and knowledge. DRINK UP!
by Courtesy Ray Hout, clarkesvilleonline,TN; Coffee Companion Newsletter
Coffee is a surprising source of soluble dietary fiber, but a U.S. newsletter advises it's not the only one.
Soluble fiber may help lower Low Density Lipoprotein, LDL, or "bad" cholesterol and blood sugar, the Mayo Clinic Health Letter reports.
Fiber comes in two forms -- soluble fiber, which dissolves in water to form a gel-like material and comes from beans, some fruits and even coffee, and insoluble fiber, which doesn't dissolve in water and passes through the digestive system largely unchanged. Sources of insoluble fiber are cereals, wheat bran, and the stalks and peels of fruits and vegetables, the American Dietetic Association says.
The American Dietetic Association recommends the daily allowance of dietary fiber for men is 30 to 38 grams per day and for women, 21 to 25 grams.
A study, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, found one cup of coffee per day contains up to 1.8 grams of soluble fiber.
The Mayo Clinic Health Letter says other good sources of soluble fiber include beans, fruits, berries, vegetables and oatmeal.
Today, coffee is a giant global industry employing more than 20 million people. This commodity ranks second only to petroleum in terms of dollars traded worldwide. With over 400 billion cups consumed every year, coffee is the world's most popular beverage. If you can imagine, in Brazil alone, over 5 million people are employed in the cultivation and harvesting of over 3 billion coffee plants.
Sales of premium specialty coffees in the United States have reached the multi billion-dollar level, and are increasing significantly on an annual basis.
Once again, a new study shows that coffee may contain an ingredient that protects us from yet another widely known disease of the liver - alcoholic cirrhosis. The comprehensive study, shows that among more than 125,000 people studied for up to 22 years, coffee drinkers were less likely to be diagnosed with alcoholic cirrhosis.
The researchers noted, “these data support the hypothesis that there is an ingredient in coffee that protects against cirrhosis, especially alcoholic cirrhosis.”
Of course, they aren’t recommending that anyone rely on drinking coffee to prevent alcoholic cirrhosis. After all, “not drinking heavily” is definitely a better strategy for liver health, the researchers emphasized.
The participants were signed up for the study between 1978 and 1985. They were followed until the end of 2001. Upon joining the group, participants were given a thorough checkup and was asked to fill out a complete report about their own consumption of alcohol, coffee, tea, and cigarettes. Most importantly, none had been diagnosed with liver problems.
Here’s a summary of the participants’ own report
* Most particiant were noted drinking light or moderate amounts of alcohol (up to two daily drinks). * About 8% of them admitted drinking three or more alcoholic drinks per day. * Typical coffee consumption was one to three daily cups, as reported by 42% of the group. * Approximately 16% reported drinking four or more daily cups of coffee.
Over the years, 330 participants were diagnosed with cirrhosis; 199 of those cases were alcoholic cirrhosis, while the remaining cases of cirrhosis were nonalcohol related. Which means about 60% are related to alcohol drinking.
For every daily cup of coffee that participants reported drinking, they were 22% less likely to have been diagnosed with alcoholic cirrhosis during the study. Although the odds of developing nonalcoholic cirrhosis weren’t linked to coffee consumption.
Coffee drinkers were also less likely to have high blood levels of liver enzymes. That pattern was strongest in people with the highest reported alcohol consumption.
The study didn’t identify what ingredient in coffee might help protect the liver from alcoholic cirrhosis. Caffeine might not get the credit. Tea contains caffeine, but tea consumption didn’t appear to lower participants’ odds of being diagnosed with any form of cirrhosis.
Finally, the study doesn’t prove that drinking coffee cuts the chance of developing alcoholic cirrhoses, the researchers caution. They also point out that if coffee protects the liver, the effects of adding cream, milk, sugar, or other substances to coffee aren’t yet known.
SOURCES: 1. Klatsky, A. Archives of Internal Medicine, June 12, 2006; vol 166: pp 1190-1195. 2. Gloria Jean’s September 2007 e-newsletter.
Are you enjoying a cup of coffee in the morning, while reading your favorite newspaper or just relaxing after working eight-hours? Well, keep on sipping, because its not just a simple beverage to buzz you up, it has health benefits.
