Coffee Obsessed

So I am flipping through the Wall Street Street Journal the other day (December 29, 2009 edition) and on the front of the Personal Journal section there is a large article titled “Good News in the Daily Grind”. In this WSJ article, Melinda Beck explores the pro and con coffee health and wellness experts debating the never ending issue on whether coffee is good for your health or not.

Forget that it is good for the soul as you sip on your cup of java, but is it actually beneficial for the body to partake in the process of consuming this wonderful beverage?

You can go back and forth on whether the studies make any sense or are even conducted correctly (you can make stats say anything you want right?), but what caught my eye was the picture you see in the above photograph. Paraphrased for space below…

• 1 Cup A Day – Lowered the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 7%.
• 2 Cups A Day – Lowered the risk of committing suicide by 60%.
• 3 Cups A Day – Cut the risk of gallstones by 20%.
• 4 Cups A Day – Cut the risk of stroke by 43% in woman who have never smoked.
• 5 Cups A Day – Lowered Risk of Alzhelmer’s disease by 65%.
• 6 Cups A Day – Lowered risk of advanced prostate cancer.

The surprising part…these results were independent of your choice of leaded or unleaded coffee which yields the conclusion that these results are not caffeine based. Now…there is plenty of proof on how prolonged caffeine use can cause adverse side affects in people (also included in that list), but the positive affects of coffee on your life can not be denied!

Throughout the contrasting opinions in the article, there is one underlying theme that surrounds every opinion but is never defined…there is something in coffee that is good for the body…from a health standpoint…they just can’t figure out what or why.

For those of us that are habitual coffee obsessives connoisseurs, this is good news in our pursuits of all things coffee…just watch out for the caffeine overload and you are good to go!