Everyone's Health

Research likely will reveal that coffee drinking has its perks

Potential health effects from coffee.

We live on the Big Island of Hawaii, and we pick up a few pounds of dark roast on Oahu that we grind just before boarding the plane home. When we get home, we immediately freeze the ground coffee.

For decades we have used the cold-water extract method for regular and decaf coffee ... Guests in our home uniformly comment on how smooth this coffee is.

I learned years ago that the Swedes in Sweden had, by a small margin, the best longevity in Europe, and they drink coffee in far larger quantities than I ever could. And it wasn't high-quality coffee. Swedes typically saved about a quarter of today's used grounds to mix in with tomorrow's.

If coffee is so bad for you, how come Swedish longevity is so good? Any insight as to what it is about coffee that might be contributing to health.

Specific components beneficial to the survival of plant species end up in the fruits of those plants. Plants have roots and are unable to get up and run away from danger, so they need to produce their own arsenal of first-aid compounds and survival aids or they would never thrive.

The healthfulness of fruits and berries, many hang out in the sun all day and must have antioxidants and other phytochemical resources or else they would perish. Science, of course, has affirmed this, and we know that vegetables and fruits – especially berries – are wonderful resources for these compounds.

We find the same types of compounds in chocolate (cocoa) and even in coffee, as these typically grow in tropical climates.

The problem with coffee is that it undergoes a roasting process, followed by a hot-water extraction. If we analye green coffee beans, we would likely find a host of beneficial compounds in them.

In recent years, we have learned about the beneficial phytochemicals in cocoa. Initial studies are now finding beneficial substances in coffee, but more work is needed to identify these substances and determine the relative amounts in green coffee beans, in roasted beans and in a cold-water brew compared with one made with the typical hot-water method.

We are just scratching the surface on this, but with knowledge and a bit of motivation, we can blaze a healthful trail for ourselves and our families.

For those who want to learn more about coffee, I recommend the revised and updated The Joy of Coffee: The Essential Guide to Buying, Brewing, and Enjoying (Houghton Mifflin) by Corby Kummer , a culinary scholar who is definitely worth his beans.

Prior | Tell us what you think | Next

Add to Your Social Bookmarks: Del.icio.us Digg Furl Reddit Simpy Spurl Y! MyWeb - StumbleUpon