Decaf Coffee Risk
Many choose to drink decaf coffee in order to avoid the stimulus of caffeine. Many may still be concerned about high blood pressure, although it has been shown than regular coffee and healthy organic coffee of the regular kind do not raise blood pressure in the long run. The concern today with a decaf coffee risk is that decaf coffee contains greater of two substances which are known to elevate cholesterol. Although kahweol and cafestol are both removed by coffee filters, not everyone uses a paper filter when brewing coffee. (Think French Press or the cloth bag used in many Latin American households through which boiling water is poured over ground coffee.) The two substances, kahweol and cafestol, are diterpenes, and they have been found to raise low density cholesterol and triglycerides by as much as twenty percent. The flip side of this concern is that the two substances also seem to have anti-cancer properties. Considering that coffee consumption is known to reduce the risk of liver, prostate, colon, and endometrial cancer, it cannot be all bad. So, is there decaf coffee risk with higher cholesterol levels? There is no long term risk that we know of for increased heart disease with regular or decaf coffee.
Losing the Benefits of Caffeine
While regular and organic coffee antioxidants are known to be beneficial, it appears that caffeine itself brings about a number of positive health effects for coffee drinkers. The issue for coffee drinkers may not so much be one of avoiding higher cholesterol as missing out on the health benefits of caffeine. And, many folks drink coffee because it wakes them up and gives them a boost to start the day or continue at a productive level near quitting time. Cut out the caffeine and you cut out what is the best part of drinking coffee for many people.
No Change in Mortality
When researchers look at the risk of dying as related to coffee drinking, decaf coffee risk and regular coffee risk come out the same. There is no greater risk of dying if you drink coffee than if you do not. There are no long term studies comparing organic coffee consumption to regular or decaf regular coffee consumption as regards life expectancy or earlier death. Considering the number of impurities that one avoids by drinking certified organic coffee this may be a useful thing to do. There are as many as 150 unwanted chemical in regular coffee that are not found in organic coffee according to health authorities in Australia. Although high doses of pesticides are lethal and moderate doses of pesticides are known to produce a variety of bad results, there is no clear evidence of just how much damage is done by drinking regular coffee with pesticides added versus organic coffee from places like Costa Rica, Colombia, or Panama. Meanwhile if you are interested in great coffee, organically grown, consider Colombian organic coffee brands, Panama Mountain grown organic coffee, or organic coffee from Costa Rica. You will enjoy your coffee and you will not have to worry about a decaf coffee risk.
Leaf Rust Kills Organic Coffee Crops
A seemingly eternal threat to growing healthy organic coffee is a fungus that is native to the tropics where coffee is grown. Leaf rust attacks coffee crops and leaf rust kills organic coffee crops. If an organic grower is unable to treat the problem with non-chemical means he risks losing his crop and his livelihood. The fungus’ proper name is Hemileia vastatrix. When it is not controlled the disease kills coffee plants and reduces coffee growers to poverty. It starts as an orange to yellow somewhat powdery discoloration on the underside of the leave of the coffee plant. It begins as spots, less than a millimeter in diameter and grows to millimeters diameter with a pale yellow discoloration. It is known among Latin American coffee growers as “roya.” The issue for organic growers is that quarantine and destruction of individual plants is not always effective. Thus a grower who has put the time, effort, and money into getting organic coffee certification may lose everything unless he turns his back on organic practices and spays the heck out of his coffee plants. Then he can only sell his produce at regular coffee prices and not the higher prices that good quality organic coffee commands. If he loses his crop he needs to replant, probably after spraying the soil, and wait several years for new coffee plants to reach maturity.
Why Not Just Spray?
Before organic coffee became popular growers use a copper based chemical to retard the growth of coffee leaf rust. Then they switched to other synthetic fungicides. One of the older complaints, before folks worried about being poisoned by chemicals, was the copper treatment and others affected taste and produced a product that did not sell well nor command a good price. As leaf rust kills organic coffee crops today this is still an issue. A grower could decide to treat with a modern fungicide and save his coffee crop. He would then try to sell his coffee beans and hope that the treatment did not devalue his product compared to regular coffee. Then he would need to resume organic farming practices and wait the usual three years until he is certified to have avoided non-organic techniques long enough to be certified again.
Follow the Money
As leaf rust kills organic coffee crops the issue, as always, is money. Starbucks, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, and many others have gotten into organic coffee in a big way. This movement has been good for the small grower and good for the environment and good for coffee drinkers who get a better cup of coffee. It has always been about pressure from consumers who want to avoid impurities in their coffee and who want to protect the environment. What will these buyers do if their hand-picked growers need to spray to stay alive? Will they create a middle category of treated coffee? Growers will not stay with the organic movement if they constantly need to recertify and do not get the rewards of better pay for their coffee each and every year. At some point buyers and consumers may need to adopt the practical approaches that farmers have used for years and accept spraying when it is necessary to keep the sources of good coffee alive.
Safety of Organic Vegetables
Those who advocate eating organic food claim that food that is produced using organic measures is safer than food that is produced using conventional methods. The fact that there are (supposedly) no chemical fertilizers, no toxic pesticides, and no drugs used in the production process is the basis of the claim that food produced using organic farming and ranching methods is safer for human consumption. But is it?
It’s been my experience over the years that there are always at least two sides to every story, and usually a lot more sides if there is money involved. There IS money involved in the war between organic and traditional food producers.
We know what organic food producers say. They say that food that is not contaminated with chemicals and drugs is simply safer, and the argument certainly makes sense. But, of course, there is another view of the subject. Those who advocate conventional farming methods say that food that is produced using organic methods is more susceptible to new strains of bacteria and pathogens.
So, who is right? Is organic food safer than traditional food? Is organic food downright dangerous? According to the information that I have read, the answer is that organic food is safer.
The people who are raising the questions about the safety of organic food are worried because organic food production is growing. In relation to overall food production worldwide, land that has been certified for organic food production is tiny, even miniscule – but it is growing. And that growth is apparently of great concern to those who stand to lose a lot of big bucks when farmers and ranchers stop buying those chemical fertilizers, toxic pesticides, and drugs.
As more and more farmers and ranchers turn to organic farming and ranching methods because it is obviously much more profitable in the long run, fewer chemical products are being sold. It’s always about the money!
Strictly Natural Coffee
What is strictly natural coffee? Is it healthy organic coffee? Who plants it? Who harvests it? Who processes strictly natural coffee to preserve its organic qualities? Can you find organic coffee antioxidants in strictly natural coffee? Where can you buy strictly natural coffee and does someone certify it? Strictly natural coffee not only grows in the wild but grows where it grows because a bird dropped a seed and the plant started to grow. After all, coffee grew in the wilds of East Africa where it was first recognized and used to brew coffee. Strictly natural coffee is not cultivated but in order for us to consume strictly natural coffee someone needs to pick it and process it, ship it, roast it, and package it. To the extent that strictly natural coffee is not mixed with anything off the coffee farm, treated with chemicals, or dealt with in any way except to roast it and package it, it is truly organic coffee.
Strictly Natural Organic Coffee
To make sure that natural coffee is free of impurities it is wise to look for evidence of organic coffee certification. This indicates that the soil in which the coffee was grown has had no chemicals applied for at least three years. It also guarantees that the coffee was processed, shipped, roasted, and packaged in conditions that guarantee no mixing with other products. There is, however, no guarantee that organic coffee is strictly natural coffee. There are, however, sources of strictly natural coffee. As an example, some types of Panama Mountain grown organic coffee are strictly natural coffee. There are coffee cooperatives in the provinces of Chiriquí and Veraguas in Panama that pick their coffee in the forested highlands. These shade grown organic coffees grow wild, are not cultivated, and receive no fertilizers or chemicals. They are picked at the peak of perfection, dried, and sent for roasting or shipment as green coffee beans. While shade grown organic coffee is normally spaced out to mimic a plant growing naturally, strictly natural coffee does not require the services of a planter to grow in the right location.
Does Strictly Natural Coffee Differ from Organic Coffee?
To the extent that an organic coffee grower replicates natural conditions when growing coffee, good organic coffee is strictly natural coffee. And, to the extent that strictly natural coffee is processed by good organic techniques the natural aspects of the coffee are not ruined by processing with regular coffee tainted with herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, or synthetic fertilizers. If coffee picked in the wild is properly processed, stored, shipped, and roasted it retains its good organic qualities. The risk with strictly natural coffee that is not certified as organic is that it is entirely possible for one to pick coffee from plants growing in the wild and mix the beans with those from other sources in order to increase the quantity. This practice all too often reduces the percentage of strictly natural coffee and may, in fact, defeat the purpose of picking coffee in the wild.
Proof of Organic Food Health Benefits
We’ve all heard, maybe even accepted as fact, that organically grown foods are safer than regular commercially produced foods. We’ve heard that there are definite health benefits that we can gain simply by eating organically produced food products. But is there any proof anywhere that organically produced food really does provide health benefits and really is safer than any other food?
There is simply no disputing the fact that there are more cases of cancer now than there were even a few years ago. In the last 20 years, leukemia is up nearly 11%. In that same time frame, brain cancer has risen by 30% and bone cancer by 50%. Testicular cancer is up by a mind-blowing 60%. So what do these sad statistics have to do with the relationship between organic food and health?
Other statistics when seen in relation to the increased cancer statistics show the relationship. The studies were done with children as the test subjects but, last time I looked, children are the ones who grow up to be adults.
Kids whose parents work with pesticides are more likely to get leukemia and brain cancer. Other studies reveal that childhood leukemia is directly related to increased pesticide use around the home. Nine different studies that were reviewed by the National Cancer Institute showed a correlation between pesticide exposure and brain cancer.
Now just because all of these facts are not in dispute doesn’t mean that anybody is saying that there is direct PROOF that organically grown food provides any health benefits. Of course, the powers that be would never make such a statement. Can you imagine what would happen? There would be panic in the streets. The demand for organically produced food would overwhelm the food industry. Nobody is likely to make the sweeping statement that organically grown food is safer than commercially produced food – but you can draw your own conclusions.
One Hundred Percent Natural Coffee
The issue arose the other day of whether or not there is a difference between healthy organic coffee and one hundred percent natural coffee. One of our readers recently asked this question,
Is it possible to find any coffee which is not merely organic, but ‘100% natural,’ that is, it is neither artificially decaffeinated NOR CONTAINS ANY ADDED CAFFEINE beyond what is in the coffee bean naturally.
Thank you
JL
Our immediate response to JL was,
Yes, it certainly is.
100% organic coffee is grown, processed, stored, transported, and roasted without the addition of artificial fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, or fungicides. In addition, no extra caffeine is added either.
It is possible to decaffeinate coffee but good organic coffees have no added caffeine beyond what nature puts in the coffee bean.
This question got us thinking. Is one percent natural coffee only found in the wild? Or, can a coffee farmer bring shade grown organic coffee, grown under strictly natural conditions, to market? Coffee is, after all, a plant that comes from the highlands of East Africa. The first recorded use of coffee as a beverage comes from as early as the 13th century and it is generally agreed that the plant grew naturally and people simply picked the ripe berries. By the 1400’s coffee was known of at Sufi Islam monasteries in Yemen and by the 1500’s the drink was imbibed in Persia. Somewhere along the line someone had to have carried the seeds and planted them in order to start a coffee farm. Remember that no one was making synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, or fungicides in the middle of the last millennium. Thus we might say that folks in that era all drank one hundred percent natural coffee, organic coffee as it were.
How is Organic Coffee Natural?
Organic coffee certification tells us that the soil in which the coffee was grown must have been verified as free from prohibited substances for at least three years. In addition there must have been distinct boundaries between land on which organic coffee was grown and land where pesticides, herbicides, and prohibited chemical fertilizers might have been used. This practice guarantees that the drift of substances sprayed or otherwise applied on adjacent land will not contaminate the organic plot of land. Organic coffee certification includes the adherence to a specific and verifiable plan for all practices and procedures from planting to crop maintenance, to harvest, de-husking, bagging, transport, roasting, packaging, and final transport. Along the way procedures must be in place at every step to insure that there is no contamination of the healthy organic coffee produced in pristine soil with regular coffee produced on soil exposed to herbicides, pesticides, and organic fertilizers. In short, organic coffee is grown in pretty close to the same conditions as one hundred percent natural coffee found in the wild. Shade grown organic coffee is typically spaced out as well, further mimicking a plant growing naturally.
When Does Coffee Cross the Line from Natural?
The obvious ways in which commercially grown coffee is not one hundred percent natural coffee are that plants are bunched together in order to increase crop yield. Plants are treated with a variety of chemicals in order to increase yield and reduce crop loss from pests and diseases. And newer varieties of coffee can be grown in full sun which is rarely the case with one hundred percent natural coffee. To the extent that someone intentionally plants coffee, organic coffee is not one hundred percent natural coffee. To the extent that the organic coffee that you drink is the same as might have been found in the wild and processed under strictly organic conditions, good organic coffee is, in fact, one hundred percent organic coffee.
Thanks, readers, for your comments.
Pesticide Residue
Call me a skeptic, but I’m always just a little suspicious of what level is “safe” for ingesting the pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables and just who determined how much pesticide it’s okay to eat. Obviously nobody is testing each apple or each spinach leaf to make sure it complies with the “safe” levels. And what’s considered “safe”? If I don’t drop dead within two hours, then it’s fine?
The fact is that there IS pesticide residue on ALL fruits and vegetables that are grown in the conventional way. The conventional methods include the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and drugs. There’s more residue on some than on others, but there IS pesticide residue on all of it. The level of pesticide residue that is considered “safe” – or maybe the term should be “legal” – varies from chemical to chemical and from variety to variety. More residues is allowed on some fruits and vegetables than others.
If you do not buy organic fruit and vegetables, then at the very least, wash them and, when possible, peel them before you eat them. There are vegetable and fruit washes that are available on the market, but a mild detergent wash is just about as effective.
When you do buy organic fruits and vegetables, there shouldn’t be any pesticide residue on them if they were raised in the United States. The label will say “certified organic.” That “certified organic” label means that the fruits and vegetables were raised under strict standards and that there were no pesticides or chemical fertilizers used. Regulations vary from country to country. So if the fruits or vegetables are labeled “organic,” that means only that they were raised according to organic standards of other countries, and that those standards are not a strict as those in America.
Reduce Risk of Parkinson’s Disease by Drinking Coffee
Among the many benefits of coffee and especially healthy organic coffee is that apparently one can reduce risk of Parkinson’s disease by drinking coffee. According to a study of persons on Olmstead County, Minnesota, there is an inverse relationship between the amount of coffee that people drink and their chances of getting Parkinson’s disease. Nearly two hundred persons were followed for twenty years (1976-1995). Researchers noted the amount of coffee that people drank and whether or not they developed Parkinson’s disease. When other things that might affect the incidence of Parkinson’s disease, like smoking, were excluded, there was a clear association between higher coffee consumption and a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease.
Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. When cells in the brain in a mid-brain region called the substantia nigra die, patients develop shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement and difficulty with walking and gait. Then in later years, thinking is affected and behavioral problems may occur. Dementia is a hallmark of the end stages of this disease. Parkinson’s disease is much more common after age fifty. Direct costs of this disease in the USA are over $20 Billion a year.
Health and Organic Coffee Antioxidants
Regular as well as organic coffee contains chemicals called antioxidants. 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. There have been proven to be many health benefits from drinking coffee, many of which can be tracked back to antioxidants.
Less Diabetes and Less Cancer if You Drink Coffee
Researchers have found less diabetes with daily organic coffee. Although this effect holds true with regular coffee as well, the reduction in impurities with organic coffee is an added benefit. In addition, coffee consumption has been related to a lower incidence of prostate cancer, endometrial cancer, liver cancer, and colon cancer. If indeed, it is the presence of antioxidants in coffee that tends to reduce risk of Parkinson’s disease by drinking coffee, the affect is probably on the cells of the mid brain in the substantia nigra. Further research on how to reduce risk of Parkinson’s disease by drinking coffee has not been recently reported but the reported study from Minnesota seems to indicate that you can reduce risk of Parkinson’s disease by drinking coffee. Add that fact to the good taste and other health benefits of drinking organic coffee and enjoy your morning organic coffee.
Organic Wine
Recent updates by the USDA say that “a wine made from organically grown grapes and without any added sulfites” is what constitutes a “certified organic” wine. That’s a problem. You see, wine that is made without any added sulfates is very unstable; the quality is unstable, the color is unstable, and the taste is really unstable.
What were once sold as “organic wines” are now sold as “wines made from organic grapes.” This means that the grapes used to make the wine were grown in an organic method. No artificial pesticides or fertilizers were used on the grapevines.
The wine makers are not happy campers, to say the least. These new guidelines mean that the wine industry is the only industry that cannot label its products “certified organic,” even though they at least 95% organic and in some cases as high as 99.99% organic.
Wine producers say that this undue attention given to “certified organic” wine doesn’t serve the public well. They say that it takes attention away from the important issues like soil conservation, soil depletion, soil erosion, water pollution, ecological impact, and pest resistance, and only serves to confuse consumers and merchants alike.
The result of the changes in the rules by the USDA that you will likely notice are wines that were once labeled “certified organic” are now labeled “made from organically grown grapes.” You’ll probably also notice a price increase.
Sometimes, it seems, the USDA trips over its own feet in its haste to make rules and regulations. Some of the rules and regulations do nothing more than add cost to products that we all buy everyday. They don’t enhance their safety, they don’t enhance their taste, and they do nothing to safeguard the environment – they simply add to the cost.
Drink Coffee to Avoid Gallstones
OK folks, here is one more benefit of drinking healthy coffee, and especially healthy organic coffee. It turns out that long term steady coffee consumption can reduce the risk of gallstones. What? Drink coffee to avoid gallstones? Well, you probably already like coffee or you would not be reading this so you do not need to drink coffee to avoid gallstones. You simply need to enjoy your coffee, not decaf, and get one more added benefit of coffee consumption. Where does this information come from? Scientists at the Harvard School of Public Heath set up a prospective study. This means that they set out to test whether or not something was true. In this case they compared coffee drinkers with non-coffee drinkers and two to three cups a day drinkers with four or more cup a day drinkers. They followed over forty thousand men for ten years. They recorded coffee consumption and consumption of other caffeinated drinks and whether or not these men ended up with symptomatic gall bladder disease and gall stones. The men in the study at the beginning ranged from forty to seventy-five years of age. The scientists only were interested in men who did not already have gall bladder disease.
So What Were the Results?
The researchers found that premise that you can drink coffee to avoid gallstones may well be true. Out of the forty thousand men in the study over a decade just over a thousand developed gall bladder disease, symptoms and stones. It turned out, all other factors being equal, that men who drank two to three cups of coffee a day had six tenths as many cases of gall bladder disease as men who did not drink coffee. Men who drank four cups or more a day had 55% the risk of getting gall bladder disease as non-coffee drinkers. This effect did not hold for decaf drinkers! The fact that you can apparently drink coffee to avoid gallstones held true for all brewing methods. Organic coffee was not tested versus regular coffee.
So What about Gall Bladder Disease?
Gall stones affect twenty million Americans and result in eight hundred thousand hospitalizations a year. The direct cost of this is two billion dollars in 1999 dollars (when the study was reported). If all adult Americans were to drink coffee to avoid gallstones it might make a lot of people less sick and potentially save sixty percent of two billion ($1.2 Billion) in direct costs.
How about Organic Coffee in This Story?
We know that regular and organic coffee antioxidants are good for you. They appear to be related to reduced risks of cancers of the prostate, endometrium, colon, and liver and have been associated with a huge decrease in the risk of Type II Diabetes. The special benefits to you of good organic coffee are that it is typically high quality coffee and that you avoid drinking well over a hundred impurities with your coffee. Now you can enjoy your great organic coffee and be comforted that you are nearly cutting the risk of getting gall stones in half!