More Good News for Coffee

By now, you've probably heard that coffee is not the no-no that natural health experts used to think it was.  True, if you drink a lot of it, it can have negative effects such as disrupting sleep, increasing anxiety, and over the long term, exhausting your adrenal reserves.  In fact, you may recall that researchers have even found the cut-off for how much is too much:  more than four cups (32 fluid ounces) per day increases the risk of death.

If you drink coffee in moderation, add to its benefits a decreased risk of metabolic syndrome and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).  This was reported in a new meta-analysis (a study of studies), though the mechanism of protection is not clear.

Metabolic syndrome is a spectrum of health problems associated with our modern poor diet and sedentary lifestyle habits, including at least 3 of the following 5 conditions:

• Fasting blood sugar (glucose) ≥100 mg/dL
• Blood pressure ≥130/85 mm Hg
• Triglycerides ≥150 mg/dL
• HDL-C ("good cholesterol") < 40 mg/dL in men or < 50 mg/dL in women
• Waist circumference ≥40 inches in men or ≥35 inches in women

Your liver is the major organ of detoxification, as well as the master of regulating nutrition and metabolism in the body.  NAFLD, as its name implies, refers to the accumulation of fat in the liver that impairs its function, caused by unhealthy diet rather than alcohol intake.

As always, be sure to consume that coffee in moderation, and minimize (or skip altogether) the milk and sugar.

Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2013;38(9):1038-1044. 

Coffee: Superfood or Death Sentence?

Earlier this year, I outlined some of the amazing health benefits associated with regular coffee consumption.  These include a decrease risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and endometrial cancer; pain reduction as among its benefits too.

Now, new research from the Mayo Clinic (1) makes us pause and reflect on how much is too much of a good thing.  I often hammer that old adage, "all things in moderation;" in this case, moderation appears to be 4 cups of coffee per day.  More than that raises the risk of death for people under age 55.

Researchers looked at data from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study, which examined dietary habits and health data from over 43,000 participants over the course of 31 years.  For folks under the age of 55 who drank more than 28 cups of coffee per week, all-cause mortality risk increased by over 50% for men, and more than doubled for women.  The direct cause of this association is unknown, but seems to be unrelated to coffees cardiovascular effects.

One of the important points to keep in mind is that a "cup" in this study is defined as 8 fluid ounces; the cutoff point therefore seems to be about 32 ounces per day.  The "cup" markers on your coffee pot are 6 ounces each, so the limit would be about five of those cups.  If you prefer to get your coffee on the go, this would translate into only two "grandes."

This study leaves a lot of questions, such as the association of caffeine on health (the study didn't differentiate between regular and decaf coffee), the actual biological mechanisms of coffee (it has hundreds of phytochemicals besides caffeine), and the confounding factor of smoking with coffee consumption.  In the meantime...  Come on, people, four cups per day should be plenty for anyone.  In fact, beyond the first one or two cups of the day, why not explore the benefits of other healthful beverages such as green tea?

1.  Liu J, Sui X, Lavie CJ, et al. Association of coffee consumption with all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality.Mayo Clin Proc 2013; DOI:10.1016/j.mayocp.2013.06.020.

Coffee: Pain Reduction, Weight Loss, and More

For decades, it's been a given in natural health circles that coffee is a no-no. It's commonly one of the first things that people are asked to give up when going on a detox program, or any other recommendations for improving their health. Over the past decade or so, though, evidence has been mounting that there are actually many health benefits for that morning cup of joe.

One of the latest findings is that coffee may help to reduce pain.  In 2012, Norwegian researchers found that coffee drinkers reported about a 25% lower pain score than non-coffee drinkers in a simulated office work environment. This difference was true whether participants had chronic pain or not.

Other benefits that have been reported for coffee in recent years include:

• decreased risk of endometrial cancer, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and type 2 diabetes
• enhanced muscle growth
• assistance with weight loss (with green coffee bean extract)

The research on green coffee extract for weight loss was a small human trial, involving only 16 subjects. Doses used were in the range of 700 to 1000 mg per day.  However, the results were striking, and so far, and this supplement seems safe. It is inexpensive, and worth a try for a few months.

The main benefits of coffee seem to be related to its phytonutrient content-- those health promoting compounds found in plants that have antioxidant and other beneficial effects on the human body. These benefits seem to hold true whether the coffee contains caffeine or not. So if you're concerned about caffeine, due to its acute blood pressure raising effects, or its detrimental effects on sleep, you can drink decaf, and still enjoy the preventive medicine aspects of coffee.

One last thing to keep in mind: many of the health benefits of coffee can be counteracted if you add a lot of milk and sugar to it. The high saturated fat and empty calories would be more than enough to outweigh the phytonutrient effects.

For me, I'll be enjoying my cup of black half-caf in the morning all the more.