Should We All Drink Coffee?
There are a lot of health benefits in a cup of coffee. Because coffee is a healthy beverage why don’t more of us drink it? An interesting article in this regard in The New York Times posed a question. “I Don’t Drink Coffee. Should I Start?”
Counting yourself out from the 64 percent of Americans who drink at least one cup a day can invite bewildered responses from dedicated coffee drinkers. To them, the benefits are clear, the drawbacks minimal.
Being in the minority, it’s easy to wonder: Have I been making a mistake? Should I and other coffee abstainers start now?
“There aren’t any guidelines to help guide you on this,” said Dr. Donald Hensrud, director of the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program. “This is kind of an individual decision.”
The point the doctors make in this article is that we know that coffee is not bad for you and has lots of positive health effects including living longer. But, should we all drink coffee? In other words should we treat coffee as a medicine like those that people take to treat high blood pressure or too much cholesterol? As one of the physicians noted this raises the bar for positive and negative effects of coffee. For example, there are people who are prone to acid reflux and ulcers and for those folks too much coffee causes problems. And there are people who metabolize coffee very slowly and therefore get very nervous from just a small amount. Those folks would need to consider how much discomfort they would be willing to undergo in order to experience the benefits of drinking coffee. And, what are those benefits again?
Health Benefit of Drinking Coffee
From our article, Health Effects of Drinking Coffee:
List of cancers that appear to have a lower incidence in coffee drinkers:
Diabetes Incidences Is Reduced in Coffee Drinkers
Drinking four cups of coffee a day appears to reduce the chances of getting Type II Diabetes by about a half. Research has shown that drinking coffee increases levels of sex hormone-binding globulin which in turn appears to reduce the incidence of diabetes.
Depression and the Incidence of Suicide Are Both Helped by Drinking Coffee
Everyone knows that a morning cup of coffee is a good way to wake up and that a good mid-day pick-me-up is coffee. Now research shows that one of the health effects of drinking coffee is that it reduces the risk of depression by about a fifth. Another of the health effects of drinking coffee is a reduced reduced risk of suicide in steady coffee drinkers. Drinking from two to four cups of coffee a day is associated with a fifty percent lower risk of suicide when compared to those who were not coffee drinkers.
Degenerative Brain Diseases Avoided by Drinking Coffee
For those who are concerned about the debilitating neurologic disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, help is not only on the way but help has always been there in the form a few cups of coffee each day. Researchers have discovered a reduced incidence of Parkinson’s disease and hope for those prone to Alzheimer’s in drinking coffee. Research has shown than drinking a cup of coffee a day is related to a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s than with non-coffee drinkers. More recent work shows that the reduction in the incidence of Alzheimer’s goes up with the number of cups of coffee that a person drinks each day.
Does Coffee Reduce the Risk of Cirrhosis?
A couple years ago we wrote that you can treat cirrhosis with coffee.
According to newly reported research drinking two cups of coffee a day can reduce the risk of dying from cirrhosis by sixty-six percent. Researchers looked at a variety of caffeine-containing drinks but it turns out that you can only treat cirrhosis with coffee. That is to say that only coffee leads to a substantial reduction in the risk of dying from cirrhosis. It is important to note that this benefit does not apply to cirrhosis causes by Type B hepatitis.
That was based on one study. Now doctors have considered the results of nine studies relating to cirrhosis of the liver and coffee. The new evidence confirms that coffee can reduce the risk of cirrhosis.
Undo Liver Damage with Two Cups of Coffee a Day
Fox News Health reports that one can undo liver damage from booze by drinking more coffee!
Drinking more coffee might help reduce the kind of liver damage that’s associated with overindulging in food and alcohol, a review of existing studies suggests.
Researchers analyzed data from nine previously published studies with a total of more than 430,000 participants and found that drinking two additional cups of coffee a day was linked to a 44 percent lower risk of developing liver cirrhosis.
“Cirrhosis is potentially fatal and there is no cure as such,” said lead study author Dr. Oliver Kennedy of Southampton University in the U.K.
“Therefore, it is significant that the risk of developing cirrhosis may be reduced by consumption of coffee, a cheap, ubiquitous and well-tolerated beverage,” Kennedy added by email.
Cirrhosis is the cause of death of a million people worldwide every year. The primary causes include hepatitis, immune disorders, fatty liver disease and drinking too much alcohol. A cup or two of strong coffee in the morning has long been a treatment for a hangover. Now it appears that two extra cups of coffee a day could help prevent the development of cirrhosis.
Why Does Coffee Help Prevent Cirrhosis?
It is important to notice that other caffeine drinks do not have the effect that coffee does in preventing cirrhosis. The difference is in all likelihood the antioxidants in coffee.
With your morning cup of organic coffee antioxidants are included. Healthy organic coffee is not only free of many of the impurities found in regular coffee but contains things that are beneficial to your health. These things in organic coffee include antioxidants. So, just what are antioxidants and why should we want to have more of them? Scientifically an antioxidant is a molecule that inhibits the cell damage and cell death in human cells caused by oxidative breakdown of other molecule in the cell. Oxidation is a factor in sickness and aging. Antioxidants help prevent the damage caused by excessive oxidation and to a degree inhibit the aging process. When an oxidative reaction brought on by disease gets going it produces free radicals that start chain reactions which in turn cause cell and tissue damage. The human body has or uses antioxidants to control this situation. Natural means of controlling oxidation include vitamins C and E as well as glutathione. It is low levels of antioxidants that can lead to a condition referred to as oxidative stress and resultant damage to cells in the body. Organic coffee antioxidants are in the same class of molecules that help reduce oxidation.
Does coffee reduce the risk of cirrhosis? Yes, it does and the part of coffee that does the job is likely the antioxidants.
How Does the Strong Dollar Affect Coffee Growers?
Being a hardworking and efficient coffee grower may not be enough these days if you want to be successful. You will also want to live in a country whose currency is not pegged to the US dollar! What is that all about? How does a strong dollar affect coffee growers? It turns out that coffee growers in Vietnam where the currency is pegged to the US dollar are hurting and coffee growers in Brazil whose currency is not tied to the US dollar are doing well. The Wall Street Journal provides a businessman’s view of coffee, currency exchange rates and profit as they discuss how the dollar’s strength distorts the coffee market.
Vietnamese farmer Y Kua Mlo is storing coffee in his bedroom, unwilling to sell as the strong dollar makes this greenback-denominated commodity less profitable in the dollar-pegged local currency, the dong. Mr. Mlo’s wife wants him to move into other crops.
In Brazil, João Elvidio Galimberti is planting more coffee because the steep fall of the real against the dollar means the Brazilian crop fetches more.
The strong dollar is picking winners and losers in commodity markets.
In coffee, the dollar-created imbalance between the world’s biggest producers, Vietnam and Brazil, is pressuring the price of robusta, the lower-quality beans that go into instant coffee, by encouraging extra supply from those on the right side of the dollar’s rise and an overhang from those that aren’t.
This could have a long-term impact on coffee production, encouraging Brazilian farmers to grow more beans even as it pushes their Vietnamese peers to move into other crops, such as pepper.
Over the last year, robusta’s price in dollars has fallen more than 29%. With the dong pegged to the dollar, the local price in Vietnam has almost matched that, falling by 27%, and that has encouraged stockpiling.
Add Colombia to the Brazil side of the equation as the Colombian peso is not pegged to the US dollar and has fallen to sixty percent of its 2014 value against the greenback. That gives incentive for the two greatest Arabica coffee producers to up production which will in the end drive Arabica prices down, as denominated in US dollars. The biggest robusta coffee producer ahead of Brazil is Vietnam where growers are quitting coffee due to their exchange rate dilemma.
Where Does Organic Coffee Fit in This Equation?
Organic coffee typically commands a premium price providing that the grower can connect to organic coffee purchasers through middlemen and roasters. The premium that organic coffee commands is a great incentive in Brazil where the weak Brazilian currency makes coffee more profitable as it is sold internationally in dollars. Although Vietnam is not a large Arabica or organic coffee producer it will become less so as their currency tied to the expensive US dollar makes coffee growing a non-profitable venture. Coffee growers that have survived coffee leaf rust now need to contend with price fluctuations which are not based on supply and demand but on an overpriced US dollar.
What’s with Death Wish Coffee?
If you watched Super Bowl 50 you may have seen the commercial for Death Wish Coffee. Vikings rowing a long boat on a stormy sea that turns out to be… Death Wish Coffee! So what’s with Death Wish Coffee? Forbes published an article about the commercial, the company and a small business ended up with a Super Bowl commercial.
Mike Brown, the founder and owner of Death Wish Coffee, a blend with twice the amount of caffeine of most coffees, won a contest for small business owners who wanted to advertise during the Super Bowl. In the commercial a Viking ship forges through stormy seas, which turn into a river of strong brew that flows into the mouth of a satisfied coffee drinker. The contest sponsor, Intuit QuickBooks, paid for the production plus the cost to air it during the Super Bowl, a reported $5 million for 30 seconds.
Mr. Brown started packaging and selling his coffee online in an attempt to add some profit to his coffee shop business. While the commercial was running the visits on his web site went up to 10,000 a minute and his sales have doubled. But, what’s with Death Wish Coffee and why is it so strong?
Robusta Arabica Mix
Mike Brown mixes Arabica and Robusta coffee beans to make Death Wish Coffee.
Robusta coffee is properly named Coffea robusta, or Coffea canephora. This variety of coffee is a more hardy plant than the Arabica variety. It is less prone to infestations of insects or plant disease so it is also cheaper to grow. Originating from plants in the western and central sub-Sahara Robusta yields more coffee beans than an Arabica plant and Robusta coffee beans contain about 2.7% caffeine as opposed to 1.5% for Arabica. The Robusta plant can grow as high as thirty feet. It is the primary coffee grown across most of Africa from Ethiopia on the Indian Ocean to Liberia on the Atlantic and South to Angola. The most recent export of Robusta coffee beans has been to Vietnam where coffee farmers produce the second largest volume of coffee in the world after Brazil.
Caffeine in non-coffee drinks comes from Robusta coffee beans. And a Robusta Arabica mix is used in Italian espresso blends.
Espresso Blending
Years ago David Schomer, a coffee lover and owner of Lucid Café, wrote about espresso blending.
Four years ago I sat down with Italian roaster Andrej Tricci. He explained that Italian gourmet roasters devote most of their time and energy searching out fine robustas to add to their blend. They look for coffees that will give them the longer lasting crema and at best will not detract from the flavor of the finer Arabicas in the blend.
Thus Death Wish Coffee has its origins in Italian espresso where robusta is used to increase caffeine content and Arabica is used for its superior flavor. According to Mr. Schomer it is possible to find single source robusta that has excellent flavor and is not just a caffeine enhancer.
Is Single Serve Coffee on the Way Out?
No less authority than The Washington Post wonders if America’s favorite coffee trend is coming to an end. They are referring to the single serve coffee pods pioneered by Keurig which still dominates the markets for coffee pods (K-cups) and coffee pod machines.
Several years ago, coffee pods seemed invincible. Sales of the single-serve cups were skyrocketing, more than tripling in the United States between 2011 and 2013. Sales of coffee pod machines were soaring, too, growing from 1.8 million units to 11.6 million between 2008 and 2013, according to data from market research firm Euromonitor.
Today, however, things aren’t looking quite so rosy for coffee in its most convenient form.
On Monday, Keurig, which dominates the U.S. market for both coffee pods and coffee pod machines, announced that it sold 7 percent fewer machines during the holidays than it had the year before, the sixth straight quarter in which unit sales fell. The news was particularly disappointing given how crucial the holiday season is for the company.
Single serve coffee grew because it is an efficient way to make coffee and it is convenient. This was an especially attractive feature during the depths of the Great Recession. However, as the economy recovers Americans are happy to buy coffee from the drive through at the coffee shop. But another aspect of this situation is that the vast majority of coffee pods are not recyclable and end up in the land fill.
Organic Coffee in a K-Cup?
Last year we questioned if organic coffee in a K-cup made sense.
Billions of K cups go into landfills each year. If part of the reason you drink organic coffee is that you want to protect the environment then even organic coffee in a Keurig K cup is a problem. But there was a solution. Keurig also made refillable K cups under the brand, My K Cup. You could also refill these with any coffee of your choice, which would commonly be cheaper than the coffee from Keurig. Unfortunately that changed.
Some years back, thousands of Keurig single-serve machine fans found a cheaper alternative, however -refillable, non-disposable K-cups, little plastic coffee grounds holders, which the company graciously sold under the brand of “My K-Cup.”
Not only was it cheaper, but the coffee drinker had more choice, as “My K-Cup” could be filled with any brand of coffee off the shelf.
But in August 2014, when Keurig introduced its “2.0” line of coffeemakers, it stopped making “My K-Cup” for it and made the machine incompatible with any K-cups already in existence, as well as with any unlicensed disposable K-cups made by other companies.
So Keurig is back to producing little plastic cups to fill up landfills and is enticing environmentally minded coffee drinkers by selling expensive organic coffee in those cups.
If there are more environmentally friendly ways to make and serve coffee it appears that environmentally minded coffee drinkers will find them, to the detriment of single serve coffee. Single serve coffee will continue because in places like hotel rooms and for single individuals on the go it is an efficient way to have a cup of coffee but for anyone who serves coffee to more than one person there are more environmentally friendly ways to make coffee and the single serve coffee maker will get moved to storage.
Drinking Coffee Does Not Damage Your Heart
There are cardiovascular benefits to drinking coffee so drink up according to an article published in the New York Post.
Researchers from the University of California San Francisco looked at 1,388 people who were taking part in a larger heart study, specifically 60 percent of group who said drinking caffeinated drinks – coffee, tea and chocolate – were part of their daily routine.
The researchers looked for heart irregularities – premature ventricular and atrial contractions – in the participants over a year, but found that there were no differences among the participants, average age 72, regardless of their caffeine intake.
Their findings go against the conventional clinical knowledge in the medical world that caffeine causes palpitations, which can lead to more chronic problems including heart failure or arrhythmias.
In fact, they discovered that “habitual coffee drinkers” actually have less of a chance of developing coronary artery disease.
This is another addition to the list of benefits of coffee, especially organic coffee.
Coffee drinkers are less likely to develop any of several types of cancer. Drink coffee regularly and you are less likely to get type II diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, or depression. There are, unfortunately a whole host of chemical impurities that may be found in a cup of regular coffee. The benefits or organic coffee over regular coffee hinge on the fact that healthy organic coffee is free of these substances.
What other heart healthy aspects does coffee offer?
Coffee and Your Heart
Last year we wrote about coffee and your heart.
Several months ago researchers reported that coffee drinkers have lower risk of having calcium deposits in their coronary arteries. Drinking three to four cups a day maximized the benefit of avoiding clogged coronary arteries as reported in Live Science. This means a lower risk of heart attacks.
The study of healthy young adults in Korea found that, compared with people who didn’t drink coffee, those who drank three to five cups of java per day had a lower risk of having calcium deposits in their coronary arteries, which is an indicator of heart disease. (The coronary arteries are the vessels that bring oxygenated blood to the heart muscle itself.)
The study participants who drank three to four cups had the lowest risk of developing clogged arteries seen in the study, said Dr. Eliseo Guallar, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, and co-author of the study published today (March 2) in the journal Heart.
It seems like the evidence for coffee as a health benefit just keeps coming.
Another issue with coffee and your heart was the concern that too much coffee would precipitate a condition called atrial fibrillation. Fox News reports that coffee is safe for your heart in this regard. (Republished from Live Science)
Researchers found that drinking coffee was not associated with an increased risk of a condition called atrial fibrillation, which is a type of irregular heartbeat, in either men or women.
“This is largest prospective study to date on the association between coffee consumption and risk of atrial fibrillation. We find no evidence that high consumption of coffee increases the risk of atrial fibrillation,” Susanna Larsson, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and lead author on the study, said in a statement.
It was a long term concern that since coffee is a stimulant that it would cause heart beat irregularities. But, that is not the case so drink up and enjoy. And there are more health benefits.
Drinking coffee not only does not damage your heart but is good for it!
Did Gourmet Coffee Start with Alfred Peet?
Most of us of a certain age grew up drinking mass produced ground coffee such as Maxwell House or Folgers. The concept of whole bean coffee roasted and ground just before making coffee did not exist. At least it didn’t until Alfred Peet came along. Did gourmet coffee start with Alfred Peet? Investor’s Business Daily writes that Alfred Peet brewed a better cup of coffee and folks flocked to his door.
Alfred Peet was convinced that Americans would pay up for a better-tasting cup of coffee. This was back in the 1950s and ’60s – way before today’s gourmet coffee shops.
He also saw hardly anyone willing to travel the globe in search of excellent coffee beans, teach the public how premium-quality coffee should taste and explain that with coffee beans, where they’re grown matters.
So the Dutch-born expert in coffee and tea made it his mission to serve an excellent product that was priced at a premium over the marketplace yet still was affordable enough to enjoy repeatedly.
Peet’s Coffee & Tea opened in Berkley, CA in 1961 and grew to seven locations by 1981. Today the company has 283 outlets in the USA and sells bags of gourmet coffee in retail stores. Many coffee entrepreneurs credit Alfred Peet with inspiring them to sell gourmet coffee.
Sourcing Great Coffee
Something that did not happen before Alfred Peet came along was visiting coffee plantations in search of high quality coffee. And the concepts of organic coffee, shade grown coffee and fair trade coffee followed naturally as consumers became acquainted with Peet’s gourmet coffee.
The original motive behind fair trade coffee was to develop coffee trade relationships based on respect, transparency, and dialogue between producers and sellers. The point is to guarantee fair prices to small coffee growers who would otherwise have no access to fair pricing. At its heart fair trade coffee is an idea for social betterment more so than a way to make better coffee. There is a “Fairtrade” coffee brand for which coffee packers pay a fee a “Fairtrade” logo and brand name. Coffee carrying this name must come from an associated cooperative. In general cooperative only sell part of their harvest as fair trade coffee because of lack of demand.
It was Alfred Peet who first cut out the middle man and visited coffee farms, found the best product and paid a fair price to the coffee grower.
At a time when a cup of coffee was just a cup of coffee Alfred Peet introduced us to the concept that coffee could be special. We recently asked what’s the point of organic coffee? Alfred Peet taught us that quality of coffee and sourcing are important.
You do not lose any of the health benefits of coffee when you drink health organic coffee. You get the same reduction of the incidence of type II diabetes, various kinds of cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and depression/suicide by drinking organic coffee as opposed to regular. The point is that organic coffee production is sustainable and better for the earth.
Thank you, Mr. Peet.
Will Climate Change Destroy Coffee Production
A hotter climate is going to be bad for coffee. We have written about how coffee leaf rust wipes out coffee crops. Coffee farmers need to replant with new strains and plant higher on the mountain where temperatures are lower. Will climate change destroy coffee production? According to CNBC, the CEO of Illy, climate change is affecting coffee.
Climate change is a threat to coffee production in the medium and long term, Andrea Illy, chairman and CEO of Italian coffee company Illy, told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday.
“Coffee is one of the crops which is severely affected by climate change, which is a threat both in terms of too high temperature in some regions when it is produced, (and) a threat in terms of water security – either droughts or excessive rains – in certain other regions,” Illy said.
“(The) problem is that apparently, most of the land suitable for Arabica production which is the best and most, let’s say, most cultivated, will be reduced by 50 percent from now to 2050 as a consequence of climate change,” Illy went on to add.
Despite the possibility of a reduction in coffee production, consumption is going up. The Illy CEO predicts that they will need to be producing twice to three times as much to keep up with demand by the end of the century.
Effect of Climate Change on Agriculture
Higher temperatures, more chaotic weather patterns, droughts and floods we become the norm as the world climate change, according to experts. The Tech Times writes about the effect of climate change on agriculture.
As average global temperatures begin to rise due to human activity, scientists say the drastic effects of climate change continue to take effect all over the world.
One of the most severely affected sectors is the field of agriculture. In the past decades, extreme weather conditions caused by climate change have disrupted global food production.
The researchers found that global cereal production was as much as 10% lower in the last twenty years. However, there appears to be a “fertilizer” effect of higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. The problem for coffee is that the fertilizer effect would not reduce the risk of leaf rust or help when crops are washed out by floods or die because of drought. Climate change may not destroy coffee production but it may well reduce it.
How about Cocoa?
The Bangor Daily News reports that as climate change threatens coffee production, many Central American farmers are switching to cocoa.
Soaring temperatures in Central America, linked to climate change, are forcing many farmers to replace coffee trees with cocoa – a crop once so essential to the region’s economy it was used as currency.
Farmers across the region, known for high-quality Arabica beans, still are recovering from a coffee leaf rust disease known as roya, which devastated crops over the past four years.
Now, lower-altitude areas are becoming unsuitable for growing coffee as temperatures heat up. Cocoa thrives in the warmer weather.
It would appear that as coffee production moves up the mountain cocoa will take its place at lower altitudes. Maybe we will all be drinking mocha in a generation or two!
Why Would You Buy Shade Grown Coffee?
The most common arguments for shade grown coffee are the ecological benefits. But there is more to why you would buy shade grown coffee. Let’s start with ecological benefits of shade grown coffee as reported by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.
By reviewing more than 50 studies on shade-grown coffee farms in regions ranging from Central and South America to Indonesia over the past 15 years, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) can now make the case that shade-grown coffee production is the next best thing to a natural forest, and put to rest any arguments about the sustainability of a sun-coffee system.
In study after study, habitat on shade-grown coffee farms outshone sun-grown coffee farms with increased numbers and species of birds as well as and improved bird habitat, soil protection/erosion control, carbon sequestration, natural pest control and improved pollination. While sun-grown systems can have higher yields, the shaded farms easily outperform them in sustainability measurements with the trees providing an array of ecological services that offer both direct and indirect “income/payback” to farmers and the environment.
The “hidden yield” in the shade vs. sun comparison is that of the non-coffee products and opportunities coming from the shaded system. In addition to ecotourism on several shade coffee farms, firewood, fruits, building materials and medicinal plants are all resources harvested to varying degrees by shade coffee farmers and used and/or sold by farmers.
Shade grown coffee is coffee grown the natural way that coffee evolved. Although sun grown coffee out produces shade grown coffee in the short run, it is shade grown coffee and the preserved ecosystem that it entails that wins in the end.
The Taste of Shade Grown Coffee
As noted in a Grounds for Change article, shade grown coffee simply tastes better than the sun grown variety.
Experts agree that the flavor of shade grown coffee is superior to that of full-sun coffee and that it is significantly less bitter. Shade grown coffee shrubs mature more slowly and produce fewer coffee cherries so the flavor is more concentrated and mellowed in the resulting harvest.
If your goal is to buy the most flavorful coffee buy shade grown.
Coffee for the Birds
A few months ago we wrote about coffee for the birds. If you are going to preserve habitat for local and migratory birds you need to go with shade grown coffee.
Many birds that spend their summers in the USA spend their winters in Mexico, Central America and even South America. They live in mountain forests in these regions, the same places that coffee is grown. As sun-tolerant varieties of coffee have been developed, coffee farmers have cut down upland tropical forests and planted coffee. They may have planted the occasional plantain to help prevent wholesale soil erosion but have removed the habitat for local and migratory birds. The question is, if you want to limit your coffee purchases to growers who maintain bird-friendly habitats how do you proceed?
Good choices include Rainforest Alliance, USDA Certified, shade grown, Fair Trade and sustainable. In the end it turns out that the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has the strictest certification followed by Rainforest Alliance for coffee farming that is kindest to the birds.