“The Lord must have created coffee to reward humans for those bad times they sometimes have on Earth. Having charged your heart and brain with a cup of coffee, you’re ready to face the challenges of life. A good cup of coffee makes life seem better.” – Sahara Sanders in Indigo Diaries
The history of coffee dates back centuries in Ethiopia and Yemen. It was already known in Mecca in the 15th century. However, it wasn’t called coffee at that time but Qahhwat al-bun, which, when translated from Arabic, means “the wine of the bean.” As years went by, it was shortened to Qhawa, and then the Turks later changed to Kahve.The origin of the name didn’t stop there as it became popular in the Dutch language as Koffie, which is where its English equivalent was borrowed. Coffee found its way into the English dictionary sometime in the 16th century.
The introduction of coffee in the Philippines could be traced back to the arrival of Spanish traders in the early 1500s. Sometimes in the 1880s, the Philippines was the number one coffee-producing country in the world.”
Today, the Philippines is the 14th largest coffee producer in the world, contributing significantly to the global coffee industry. However, most of the coffee produced is being consumed by Filipinos themselves. In fact, approximately 90% of Filipino adults consume coffee regularly. The average age of coffee drinkers is 24-35 years old.
More than half (about 60%) of coffee drinkers prefer instant coffee due to its convenience and affordability. The remaining 40% prefer brewed or specialty coffee. Interestingly, the preference for specialty coffee is growing, with a 10% increase in consumption in 2017.
For those of us who wake up to the aroma and flavor of that morning brew, the evidence is in: Coffee, in moderation, is not bad for you after all. In fact, some studies indicate it may even have health benefits.
“Habitual coffee consumption – black and unsweetened – has more benefits on health than harm,” points out Dr. Paolo O. Dillera, a board-certified internist, gastroenterologist and an interventional hepatologist based in Davao City.
By moderation, it means a minimum of three cups (120-150 milliliters) a day and the “last cup should be taken 6-8 hours before bedtime,” Dr. Dillera suggests, adding that any type of coffee will do just fine: branded, decaffeinated, instant or home ground.
For years the public was warned of the dangers of coffee, the main source of caffeine. In one well-publicized New England Journal of Medicine study released in 1981, researchers found a link between coffee and pancreatic cancer. But when at least seven other studies failed to back up that finding, those results had to be retracted.
The idea that coffee is bad for your heart pops up periodically. A Finnish study found that even those people who averaged 5 to 6 cups of coffee per day were not at a higher risk for developing heart disease than non-coffee drinkers. On the other hand, a Harvard study of 45,589 men, published in 1990, found no link between excessive coffee drinking and heart disease.
Research has also shown that regular, moderate drinking does not dangerously raise blood pressure. And studies have failed to substantiate fears that coffee might trigger abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias) in healthy people.
“For heart disease, I think the issue is closed,” says Dr. Meir Stampfer, an epidemiologist at Harvard who has studied many aspects of coffee and health. “Coffee drinking at reasonable levels is unrelated to heart risk.”
Until recently, there has been no conclusive evidence that caffeine or coffee is a risk factor for the development of human cancer. In 1990, the International Agency for Research on Cancer held a monograph on “Coffee, Caffeine, Tea & Maté,” the latter being a beverage unique to South American countries. The purpose of this monograph was to assess whether these beverages should be classified as being cancer causing (carcinogenic).
Coffee was cleared in all areas with the exception of bladder cancer where there was insufficient evidence available at that time, though several studies have since been published that clearly show no link between coffee consumption and bladder cancer.
Thousands of research projects have been carried out to investigate any links between coffee consumption and the development of cancer in the human body. In 1997, the World Cancer Research Fund published a comprehensive review of diet and cancer. In regard to coffee, it stated that, “Most evidence suggests that regular coffee consumption of coffee and/or tea has no significant relationship with the risk of cancer at any site.”
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive nervous disease that destroys dopamine-producing brain cells. The resulting symptoms are tremor, a slowing of movement, weakness and facial paralysis.
In the past 30 years, nine studies have shown that regular coffee consumption over time may reduce the risk of PD. The coffee element that appears most likely to produce this effect is caffeine. Six retrospective studies found that people who drank coffee on a regular basis were 50 to 80 percent less likely to develop PD than those who did not consume coffee. Three of the studies showed a dose-response relationship – strong support that the more one consumes coffee, the less likely the risk of developing PD.
If regular coffee consumption over decades seems to protect against PD, how does it do so? One of the characteristics of PD patients is the reduced amount of dopamine in certain areas of the brain. Mice whose brain dopamine content has been depleted exhibit some symptoms of PD.
In a 1991 study, caffeine given to these mice prevented the development of PD symptoms. In a 2001 study, mice were given a chemical that depletes dopamine in important areas of the brain. Levels of caffeine intake comparable to human consumption reduced the amount of dopamine depleted in the brain as well as the physical symptoms typical of PD in humans – providing a molecular explanation for the neuroprotective effect of caffeine against PD.
Several research studies have shown that drinking two to three cups of coffee a day may benefit people who have liver disease, according to the Canadian Liver Foundation (CLF).Most recently, a 2017 study demonstrated that coffee and tea can protect against liver fibrosis; the scarring of the liver (also known as cirrhosis in its advanced stages). The results of the study analyzing 2,500 people found that drinking at least three cups of coffee daily was “significantly associated” with less scarring of the liver.
Some more promising evidence of coffee’s curative effects comes from studies on diseases like non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In 2013, research observing dietary factors in patients with NAFLD found an association between drinking coffee and some improvements or “reversals” of NAFLD’s progression.
“This research may suggest that in addition to implementing dietary and lifestyle changes (such as regular physical activity), drinking coffee may be crucial in slowing the progression of liver damage in people who have NAFLD,” the CLF said.
Osteoporosis is a condition in which the bones are weakened, which in turn can lead to an increased risk of fractures occurring. Osteoporosis may be caused by many different factors, which collectively result in a weakening of the bones to such a degree that they break easily. Cigarette smoking, lack of exercise and poor nutrition are all well established as playing a role in the development of this condition.
Coffee drinking has been implicated because it has been suggested that caffeine, which is naturally occurring in tea, coffee, and chocolate and added to cola and some energy type beverages, causes calcium excretion which in turn results in weakened bones. However, a UK Government report on Nutrition and Bone Health which looked at all the available evidence concluded that concerns about loss of calcium in the urine due to caffeine intake, “are not well founded.”
The National Osteoporosis Society in the UK states that, “We have yet to see any conclusive evidence that moderate coffee consumption is a significant risk factor in the development of osteoporosis.”
On the other hand, the Osteoporosis Society of Canada says that two or three cups of coffee are not harmful if you get enough calcium in your daily diet. “As long as women consume adequate calcium (1,000 to 1,200 milligrams per day) caffeine is not a significant risk factor for osteoporosis,” says one expert.
Some people think that drinking coffee causes gastritis. It’s actually a myth. There is no clear link between the consumption of coffee and gastritis, according to experts. However, having coffee on an empty stomach may jumpstart the production of stomach acids that can worsen gastritis. The caffeine and acid in a cup of coffee make it capable of causing inflammation of the stomach. That’s why experts suggest drinking coffee only after a meal.
“Since coffee is acidic, it may lead to increased stomach acids, especially on empty stomachs,” coffeeaware.com explains. “It is why having coffee without eating anything first may make your stomach ‘a bowl of gastric acids.’”
Another myth: coffee causes stomach ulcers – those open sores in the stomach lining. The culprit is the bacteria called Helicobacter pylori. They can weaken the stomach’s protective lining, allowing acid to damage the tissue and form an ulcer.
While coffee does not cause stomach ulcers directly, it can worsen the symptoms and pain of existing ulcers. This is because coffee contains caffeine, which can stimulate the production of acid and lower the protection of the stomach lining.
However, people with ulcers are advised to avoid or limit coffee intake, as well as other beverages that can increase stomach acid, such as alcohol, tea, cola, citrus drinks, and tomato juice.
Most people avoid drinking coffee because they believe it raises their blood pressure. However, medical research has been murky on that; some studies support a link between coffee drinking and hypertension, but others do not — and a 1987 Italian investigation suggests that coffee may even help to reduce blood pressure.“After poring over these divergent views, scientists from Switzerland and the United States decided to take a fresh look by performing detailed studies on 15 volunteers,” Harvard Medical School reported. “None of the subjects had high blood pressure or hypertensive parents, and all were healthy nonsmokers; only six were habitual coffee drinkers.”
Just a note: the information discussed here is for educational purposes only.
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