At troves in history coffee has been hailed as a medical cure-all, and at others condemned as the devil's' brew-in the latter case usually for political or religious reasons, as Roger Cook, Director of the Coffee science Information Centre explains
The major pharmacologically active ingredient in coffee is the central nervous system stimulant caffeine, 1,3,7. trimethv lxanthine. Caffeine occurs naturally in some 60 plant species, of which coca-beans. tea and coffee arc the most well known.
Following consumption. Caffeine is absorbed into the blood and body tissues, and has a half-life of approximately fours hours. Although this can vary and is known to he shorter in smokers and longer in pregnant women. The amount of caffeine consumed through coffee varies and is dependent, for example, on how strong the coffee is brewed. on the type of coffee be if Robusta or Arabica, and of course on how much is consumed.
Robusta is known to contain more caffeine than Arabica. As a basic guideline an average sized cup of 150 ml of instant coffee would contain about 60 Tug of caffeine and the same size cup of roast and ground about 80 mg of caffeine. Scientific studies on the physiological and health effects of caffeine often use between 250 in,, and 600 mg of caffeine as representative of people's average daily caffeine consumption. Many of these studies have found that this level of intake presents no adverse effects to the general population.
Coffee's enormous popularity and world-wide use has made it (he
subject of considerable health research dating back as far as the 1700s, in fact coffee is one of the most heavily researched commodities in the world today with literally thousands of published scientific papers written on a wide range of health aspects many. though not all, of which arc covered in this article.
It is inevitable, with the huge number of studies published. that from time -to-time results may benegative, however there is usually a good reason for this-the research may be on very small sample set. or the researchers may not have controlled adequately for confounding factors known to impact on various conditions.
The vast majority of studies demonstrate quite clearly that coffee drinking in moderation is perfectly safe, and increasingly research is beginning to suggest that coffee drinking may even confer some health benefits
Addiction
We frequently hear people saving that they are addicted to something, when in fact a more accurate description would be to say that they have a habit. The words habit and addiction arc often misused in today's society. and this is most certainly the case where coffee is concerned.
From a scientific point of view it has been shown that caffeine, the active ingredient in coffee. does not work on the path ways in the brain. related to addiction and reward, in the same way as `hard' drugs known to be addictive.
This view is supported by the World Health Organisation who state that
"o there is no evidence whatsoever that caffeine use has even remotely comparable physical and social consequences which are associated with serious drugs of abuse".
Antioxidants
Oxidants are active oxygen components that are the cause of oxidative damage to biological molecules and can result in various diseases such as cancer or heart disease. Antioxidants let as a defence against oxidative damage.
Research in the past few years has shown that coffee contains significant levels of antioxidants. In fact four times as many as tea.
Studies on different populations have shown coffee to be the highest contributor to dietary. intake of antioxidants.
Caffeine is a bronchodilator, put simply this means something that widens the airways and enables an individual to breath more easily.
Scientifically it has been demonstrated that consuming three or more cups of coffee per day was associated in a dose related manner with reduced prevalence of asthma.
As with most things. there are two sides to every argument, and coffee science is no different. Caffeine is known to be a mild central nervous system stimulant that has been shown to be beneficial in improving an individual's level of alertness, particularly when levels are low such as after lunch when the bodies circadian rhythm 'dips'-commonly referred to as the post-lunch dip.
One school of thought, amongst the scientific community, is that caffeine does not actually improve alertness. it merely counters the effect of our not having caffeine fir a period of time, such as overnight and returns us to the level that we would have been at, had we not been used to having caffeine in the first place. This, it must be noted is view held by the minority.
There arc many very well conducted studies that demonstrate quite clearly that caffeine is effective at both improving mental alertness and alleviating fatigue under many conditions. A couple of cups of coffee and a short nap are
recognised as being the most effective countermeasures for alleviating driver fatigue, and this is supported by toad safety organizations art several EU countries.
Caffeine has also been shown to be effective in increasing physical, as well as mental, performance enabling us to work out for longer before exhaustion sets in. Research has shown this be the case with several activities including, running, cycling and playing tennis.
The caffeine in a couple of cups of coffee is sufficient to alleviate some of the symptoms associated with a common cold such as sluggishness and lethargy.
Of course, it would be wholly inappropriate to claim that coffee can cure a common cold, but it can certainly make us feel better and get us through the day.
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Source : C& CI, August/Sept- 2006 To be contd...
