Could Coffee really be good for you? Some new studies show Coffee may help your health.
Have you been told coffee was bad for you? You may have not drank enough!
Generations of doctors and supposed health experts have been warning us of the evils of coffee. Coffee has been accused of slowing children’s growth, causing cancer, and other maladies.
But a new series of medical findings has turned the tables on the myth of coffee being bad for our health. Distinguished health organizations like JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, have shown coffee is not only innocent of causing the maladies long associated with it, but is greatly beneficial.
Among the findings:
* Caffeine, equivalent to six to eight cups of coffee consumed by a human in a day, could possibly help protect people against multiple sclerosis (MS)
* A lower risk of type 2 diabetes has been associated with daily coffee drinking.
* Coffee is associated with a decreased risk of Gallstone disease in men.
* Drinking more coffee has been associated with a significantly lower incidence of Parkinson’s Disease
* Abstinence from coffee leads to “a compression of mortality rather than an increase in lifespan.” I.e., if you don’t drink coffee you’re likely to die sooner!
But can coffee be bad for you? Coffee like juice or soda, can be bad for you if you drink it in great excess. And like peanuts, some people can’t tolerate it. But for most healthy people coffee is a health beverage. People forget that coffee is, essentially, a vegetable juice. Coffee beans grown in rich soil are roasted and crushed, after which hot water filters through them to create your cup of Joe. Coffee just tastes a lot better than tomato juice.
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October 28 2008 | coffee | No Comments »
Long ago it was realized that there was a way to enjoy a cup of coffee that you love without the caffein that you wish to avoid. It has become a very common thing to decaffeinate coffee. Does the decaffeinating process change the flavor of the coffee? Can you tell the difference?
Blind taste tests suggest that most people can’t really tell the difference between decaf and regular, provided both kinds are processed properly and the cup brewed well. But, for those who can…
One necessary step for removing caffeine is exposing the coffee beans to hot water and then passing them through methylene chloride.
When picked from the tree the coffee beans is removed from its fruit and rinsed thoroughly to remove the pulpy fruit from the bean.
And possibly you were unaware your grounds had taken a dip in the swimming pool before being served. (Ok, swimming pool water is really dilute hydrochloric acid, not methylene chloride. Never let a chemist stand between you and a good line.)
Because of the processing that the coffee beans go through at times the taste may be altered a bit. It may be more due to the process than the lack of caffeine that makes you notice a difference in the flavor.
Chemical removal of the caffeine from green, unroasted beans starts by warming them in hot water or steam. That opens the bean’s pores. Then the beans are rinsed in methylene chloride, which binds to the caffeine and is then flushed away.
Alternatively, the beans can be soaked for several hours in hot water, where the caffeine leaches out into the bath. The beans are removed and methylene chloride introduced to the bath. There it bonds with the caffeine, not the flavored components that have washed out of the bean. The beans are then soaked again where they reabsorb the flavor compounds.
In another decaffeinating process charcoal is used instead of methylene chloride. The beans are placed in hot water for hours and then removed the same as with the process described above. However, this time to remove the caffeine from the water the water is strained over charcoal. The caffeine from the water binds to the charcoal so that the beans can be replaced in a caffeine free bath in full flavored water.
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October 24 2008 | coffee | No Comments »