Foo - Coffee: good, bad, only in moderation?

Me and a friend take the stance that coffee is generally "good". My other roommate says that it's generally "bad".

But from the research I've done and my friend, we've both agree that coffee has benefits such as possibly reducing risk of type II diabetes, promotes more intense workouts, possibly augments weight loss.

Bad things about coffee I've read are that it can increase homocysteine levels in the blood and possibly raise cholesterol...also a diuretic, and possibly strains your digestive system, but in reality that's if you're consuming excessive amounts.

(I just tried french press coffee, which is hands down superior in taste)

Your opinions?

You'll find a plethora a research giving contradictory opinions on this, and moderation will mute most of those arguments. Especially if you use it to wash down a b complex vitamin.

coffee enema for the win. And with this method, you do not have to use a french press.

You forgot one other bad thing about coffee, it promotes atrocious grammar :p

I've never been a fan of French Press coffee. I still prefer percolated coffee over all other types. As for the health benefits / risks ... I could care less. My grandmother drank coffee all her life until her death at 92, along with millions of other people. Somehow I think we'll survive a cup or two per day.

Coffee is my preferred drink in the morning until I start drinking Monsters. Then maybe another coffee around 2 to make the rest of my workday manageable.

I drank a Starbucks Double Shot at the halfway point of yesterdays ride then did some long pulls on the way home. I was pretty impressed with myself until I remembered that some of the other guys had done a double the day before.

My biggest problem is when my coffee system gets too much blood in it.

Isn't coffee a legal PED? Aside from that, most studies conclude that in moderation, coffee is not detrimental to your health.

http://www.ravensbrew.com/images/res.jpg (http://www.ravensbrew.com/res.html)


From the Book of Joe we read, “In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was COFFEE, and in that elixir was INSPIRATION and RAPTURE, REVELATION, and TRANSCENDENCE. And yea, verily, that libation of transubstantiation was found to be Resurrection Blend and it was good, and there were many comings for more, and much was quaffed. And what word and what sacred host will be on the supplicant’s lips as they meet their coffee maker?”

Agreed with the moderation comments. Like many substances, coffee seems to have a mix of good and bad effects in moderation, but no particularly obvious net effect. It seems like for every negative, there is a positive.

Personally I like the taste and the experience of drinking something warm and strong, but the addictive nature of caffeine really bothers me, so I generally limit my intake to 1-2 cups per week or when I'm actually tired. Even then I get into cycles of not getting enough sleep for long enough to experience withdrawal when I stop.

You forgot one other bad thing about coffee, it promotes atrocious grammar :p

I've never been a fan of French Press coffee. I still prefer percolated coffee over all other types. As for the health benefits / risks ... I could care less. My grandmother drank coffee all her life until her death at 92, along with millions of other people. Somehow I think we'll survive a cup or two per day.



Ooops. :)

what is this moderation you speak of?

:D

I like it much better as an every-once-in-a-while treat as opposed to an every day thing, just like any other drug. Drinking it every morning just messes with your energy level all day and then to top it all off, it makes you wide awake at bedtime. For me, at least.

Bad.

I make and drink a one liter french press every workday, and we make a 50 ounce drip pot on Saturday and Sunday. And I roast my own beans and pull my own espressos. My thought is coffee is good.

I still prefer percolated coffee over all other types.

Blasphemer! And I suppose your bike is Hi-Ten steel, too.

I think it is disgusting but I would side with the moderation side.
Just a wee bit too much caffeine for my stomach. I am addicted to fine teas, for what it is worth.

I like it much better as an every-once-in-a-while treat as opposed to an every day thing, just like any other drug. Drinking it every morning just messes with your energy level all day and then to top it all off, it makes you wide awake at bedtime. For me, at least.

such as...?http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/smoke/toke.gif

Good, moderation. Strong, no cream or sugar

You forgot NASTY and STINKY.

^ you're doing it wrong.

I've cut back to one generous cup of strong home-roasted French pressed goodness.

http://ruggierosmarket.com/store/images/MokaExpress.jpg
I just got one of these for father's day. Still not as good as french press, imo.

I just made another french pressed coffee.

It's so great I'm getting delirious. Soymilk was also added (the 70 cal/cup) choice, and it makes it even better + low cal.

I'm going to see how it will affect my workout at the gym. As of now it's affecting my bowels so brb.

I make and drink a one liter french press every workday, and we make a 50 ounce drip pot on Saturday and Sunday. And I roast my own beans and pull my own espressos. My thought is coffee is good.

I've wanted to try roasting my own beans, but I think a new espresso machine is needed first. I'm using a moka right now, because my el-cheapo electric died. Saving up for a Gaggia (hopefully).

Awesome...show me the drip...

Coffee can cut down the risk of mouth cancer in the case of smokers.

I used to drink it all the time at an old apartment because the sink water was gross. Coffee doesn't make me tired or energized, but I do have to go to the bathroom ever 5 seconds.

In Afghanistan, I drink it in excess almost every day. I have noticed on days when I don't drink it, I get a slight headache. When I get back to the States, I plan to quit drinking it, again. Either that or switch to decaf.

BaJ

Coffee is full of anti-oxidants, and it's good for memory and focus. It raises your blood sugar, which can be a bad thing, especially for diabetics, and it can cause digestive upset if you drink too much. It affects people differently, but it's probably a wash for most in moderation. Six cups a day is moderate, right...?

I used to drink it all the time at an old apartment because the sink water was gross. Coffee doesn't make me tired or energized, but I do have to go to the bathroom ever 5 seconds.
Its a diuretic, thats why. I once knew a guy who was hospitalized for dehydration - associated with the many cups of coffee he drank daily.

Coffee is full of anti-oxidants, and it's good for memory and focus. It raises your blood sugar, which can be a bad thing, especially for diabetics, and it can cause digestive upset if you drink too much. It affects people differently, but it's probably a wash for most in moderation. Six cups a day is moderate, right...?
Im not supposed to drink it except in small quantities; doctors orders. I was drinking 3-6 cups per day of very strong coffee, iced tea and extra caffeine to boost me along the day.
One of its side effects when taken in excess, is irregular heart palpitations, which I didnt know. So when I started having a troubling fluttering pulse, I went to my doctor
"What about caffeine," he asked. When I told him how much caffeine I was ingesting, he had a panic attack and told me to wean off. D'ohh!

Coffee is full of anti-oxidants, and it's good for memory and focus. It raises your blood sugar, which can be a bad thing, especially for diabetics, and it can cause digestive upset if you drink too much. It affects people differently, but it's probably a wash for most in moderation. Six cups a day is moderate, right...?

Tea has more anti-oxidants.

Maybe not so good.....


Waking Up to the Effects of Caffeine
Tuesday, 21 May 2002

How innocent is that morning cup of coffee? Maybe not so innocent for your health.

Believe it or not, according to a new study presented recently at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, the amount of caffeine in just one cup of coffee could be enough to harden a person's arteries for several hours afterward; Hardened arteries, or atherosclerosis, put extra pressure on the heart and increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, researchers said. They noted that their findings could have implications for people already at risk of these conditions.

“People must be careful with caffeine, especially if they have high blood pressure,” said Dr. Charalambos Vlachopoulos from the Cardiology Department of the Henry Dunant Hospital in Athens, Greece. ”After drinking a cup of coffee, blood pressure can rise up to five or even 10 millimeters of mercury. The amount depends on the individual and dose. Regular rises of this magnitude are important in a person's long-term prognosis and could increase their risk of suffering from a stroke or heart attack,” Vlachopoulos said. “I think that people with high blood pressure...should consider reducing their caffeine intake or having caffeine-free drinks.”

Effects of CaffeineThe researchers gave a group of 10 healthy volunteers either inactive placebo capsules or capsules containing 100 milligrams of caffeine — a quantity equivalent to one cup of coffee. On another day, the volunteers received the opposite capsule from the previous dosage. Neither the volunteers nor the testers knew the sequence in which the volunteers had been given the capsules. Caffeine consumption caused an increase in wave reflection — a measure of arterial stiffness — for at least two hours, according to the study results.

In other research, Dr. M. O'Rourke and colleagues at St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, Australia, presented data at the 22nd Congress of the European Society of Cardiology linking caffeine consumption with alterations in the aorta, the main artery supplying blood to the body. In this study, 18 middle-aged healthy volunteers consumed 250 mg of caffeine (equivalent to two or three cups). The results showed that caffeine led to a loss of aortic elasticity, and raised blood pressure. The elasticity of the aorta is linked to heart function and coronary blood flow, the researchers say.

In yet another study of 15 healthy volunteers, Dr. Georg Noll and colleagues at the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland, showed for the first time that coffee drinking results in a pronounced blood pressure increase in non-habitual coffee drinkers, but did not apparently have the same effect in regular coffee drinkers. In the study, blood pressure, heart rate and other measurements were continuously recorded before and after drinking coffee (triple espresso), decaffeinated triple espresso, an intravenous infusion of caffeine, or placebo.

Other bad news about caffeine... According to a study conducted in Finland, those people who drank four or more cups of coffee a day had twice the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, compared with people who drank less coffee. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease in which the body's defenses attack its own tissues. It is more common in women, tends to strike between the ages of 36 and 50, and results in a chronic destruction and deformity of the joints. Smoking, high cholesterol, being overweight and certain dietary factors have also been linked with a higher risk of the disease, according to the report in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 2000;59;631-635).

Dr. Maarku Heliovaara of the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki and colleagues looked at data from nearly 19,000 healthy men and women who entered a study in the early 1970s and were followed for 15 years. In that time, 126 people developed rheumatoid arthritis and 89 of those people had detectable levels of rheumatoid factor — an antibody that is often found in the blood years before the onset of rheumatoid arthritis. Coffee drinkers were at higher risk of developing rheumatoid factor-associated rheumatoid arthritis.

The results “should be viewed as the first step in support of the hypothesis that coffee consumption has a causative role in the development of rheumatoid factor positive rheumatoid arthritis,” the researchers write. Currently rheumatoid arthritis affects more than two million people in the US, according to the American College of Rheumatology. Too much caffeine has also been shown to raise women’s risk for incontinence.

According to a report in the July issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Obstetrics and Gynecology 2000;96:85-89), women who drink more than four cups of brewed coffee a day — or consume a lot of caffeine from other sources — may be putting themselves at risk for urinary incontinence. These women may be more than twice as likely to suffer from a weakened bladder muscle — known as unstable bladder — as women who consume less caffeine. Unstable bladder is a major cause of urinary incontinence, especially in older women.

The researchers from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, compared fluid and caffeine intake in 131 women with an unstable bladder and 128 women without the condition. Patients measured and recorded their daily intake of tea, cola, cocoa and coffee — both caffeinated and decaffeinated, which contains a small amount of caffeine, and brewed and instant. Women who consumed an average of 484 milligrams (mg) of caffeine a day, or about three to four cups of coffee, were more likely to have an unstable bladder compared with women who consumed an average of 194 mg caffeine, or one to two cups of coffee a day. Although caffeine is a diuretic — a drug that increases urinary output — the women who were high-caffeine consumers tended to have signs of unstable bladder even when drinking water. While women who smoked and those older than 55 years were also more likely to suffer from urinary incontinence, caffeine consumption remained a risk factor regardless of these other variables. “Based on the present findings, it would be prudent to advise women to avoid excessive caffeine intake...more than 400 mg/day (equivalent to four cups of brewed coffee),” Arya and colleagues conclude. Women who are suffering symptoms of incontinence, such as uncontrolled leakage of urine when laughing or coughing, may want to limit caffeine even further, the authors add.

Additionally, another recent study reported in the journal Diabetes Care (Volume 25, Number 2, February 2002) looked at the effect of caffeine and insulin sensitivity. In a randomized double blind, crossover design study, 12 healthy volunteers were administered caffeine or a placebo intravenously in a dose that equaled moderate consumption. Results showed that moderate consumption of caffeine reduced insulin sensitivity in healthy subjects 15%. Caffeine also increased catecholamines, plasma free fatty acids, and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The moderate consumption of caffeine caused a five fold increase in epinephrine. Epinephrine increases the production of glucose in the liver and interferes with the ability of muscle and fat cells to use glucose.

Found in coffee, tea and soft drinks, caffeine is the most widely used drug in the world. In the Western world, eight out of 10 adults consume caffeine in some form. Based on a 5-ounce cup, brewed coffee contains 128 mg of caffeine, instant coffee contains 66 mg, decaffeinated coffee contains 3 mg, non-herbal tea contains 38 mg, and hot chocolate contains 4 mg of caffeine. Based on an 8-ounce glass, iced tea contains 47 mg of caffeine, and cola drinks contain about 24 mg.

Do yourself a favor, wake up to the negative effects of caffeine and avoid it.

In Health
Jeff Novick, MS, RD

coffee enema for the win. And with this method, you do not have to use a french press.

The coffee enema would make it a 'Greek Press'...

You forgot one other bad thing about coffee, it promotes atrocious grammar :p

I've never been a fan of French Press coffee. I still prefer percolated coffee over all other types. As for the health benefits / risks ... I could care less. My grandmother drank coffee all her life until her death at 92, along with millions of other people. Somehow I think we'll survive a cup or two per day.

Funny, a lot of the Canadians I talk to (it's actually a lot) love percolators.

As for my opinion on coffee. It's the reason I wake in the morning. It is life.

Funny, a lot of the Canadians I talk to (it's actually a lot) love percolators.

As for my opinion on coffee. It's the reason I wake in the morning. It is life.

We're a simple lot. Don't need those fancy, schmancy drip coffee makers.

Everyone who've died... have drunken water at some point in their lives. So be careful with your water-intake...


The data is always changing, so always pay attention to dates and sampling-sizes of various studies:

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/articles/2008/06/16/coffee-drinkers-might-live-longer.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100622142551.htm
http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2010/06/coffee_drinkers_and_cancer_ris.html


Being a cyclist, I'm primarily interested in the performance enchancing effects:

CP Tips - Caffeine (http://www.cptips.com/caff.htm)
JAP - Effect of different protocols of caffeine intake on metabolism and endurance performance (http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/93/3/990?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT)
JAP - Effect of a divided caffeine dose on endurance cycling performance, (http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/94/4/1557)
JAP - Performance and metabolic responses to a high caffeine dose during prolonged exercise (http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/71/6/2292?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT) (cycling endurance increased +51%)
AJCN - Caffeine and coffee: their influence on metabolic rate and substrate utilization in normal weight and obese individuals (http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/33/5/989?maxtoshow=&HITS=25&hits=25&RESULTFORMAT=&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=50&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT)

We're a simple lot. Don't need those fancy, schmancy drip coffee makers.

I've personally never really compared closely the tastes of different brewing methods. I do know I prefer light or medium roasts rather than the charcoal they serve some places, and that's about the extent of my preferences.

I tend to stay away from French press or Americano because paper filters remove much more of the cholesterol, but on the other hand, from what I've read it sounds like the cholesterol level in coffee is moderate at worst, and we all need some cholesterol.

Absolutely the the worst tasting thing that is made for human consumption!!!!! The smell makes me sick to my stomach.
Roy

Coffee has been found to significantly reduce the incidence of Alzheimer's Disease. It has other benefits, but I can't remember what they are.

Good!

Coffee has been found to significantly reduce the incidence of Alzheimer's Disease. It has other benefits, but I can't remember what they are.
So has red wine. So now there is something to drink when the coffee buzz wears off.

Absolutely the the worst tasting thing that is made for human consumption!!!!! The smell makes me sick to my stomach.
Roy

The smell of fresh coffee is like heaven to me, especially in the morning. Perhaps it's an aquired smell. I grew up in a family of coffee drinkers. I woke up to the smell of coffee every morning. Ughh, now I've got to make a pot of coffee. See what you made me do!

I bought an Aeropress last month and it has just about rendered by french press obsolete.

The smell of fresh coffee is like heaven to me, especially in the morning. Perhaps it's an aquired smell. I grew up in a family of coffee drinkers. I woke up to the smell of coffee every morning. Ughh, now I've got to make a pot of coffee. See what you made me do!

I love the smell of coffee in the morning. The taste on the other hand...
At one time the smell of coffee and cigarettes in the morning with a donut were my favorites.

As for my opinion on coffee. It's the reason I wake in the morning. It is life.

Amen.

Coffee falls into the category of "Good for me / bad for me, I don't care, I'm going to drink it anyway."

Few things beat the simple pleasure of sitting on my front deck on a warm summer's morning, slowly coming back to life with a cup of coffee.

IMHO, when you enjoy something immensely, to the point where it improves the quality of your life, then it's by definition 'good' for you.

Coffee = civilisation, and vice versa.

It's a rare day in Utah: July 1st and it's a cool morning. How can coffee not be perfect today?

Coffee is awesome.

I enjoy mine as black as midnight on a moonless night.

12 points to whomever gets that reference.

Twin peaks.

12 points of what?