Mmmmmmm, keep em coming…

When Voltaire was informed by his physician  that coffee was a “slow, steady poison”, he replied “Yes, it must be a slow poison, it has been poisoning me for over seventy years!”

Now I don’t advocate drinking up to 50 cups a day as the famous philosopher was reputed to do, but Voltaire was obviously way ahead of his time on this – as he was on just about everything else.

Despite the unfathomable attempts of many to find some clear cut health dangers involved with drinking the stuff, we can not see any well supported studies that implicate it other than in special cases: flimsy admonishing about those with high blood pressure, etc.  So in other words – GO AHEAD AND ENJOY IT!

Feel good about the news that coffee consumption up to, no especially at amounts of 4-10 cups a day imparts many health benefits in some “fairly important” areas  such as the prevention of certain cancers, weight control, cardiovascular health;  it can even help weight trainers and other athletes to increase their workout capacity.  It’s quite the package and it tastes pretty good too.  This is one case where good dietary advice is fairly easily adhered to.

Coffee shows the highest antioxidant properties of all foods tested.  Healthy nutritionists know what that implies. It has shown promise in fighting endometrial, prostate, skin and other cancers.  It lowered the risk of developing kidney stones in women by 10% in one study.   The list goes on and on.

The latest evidence shows how it can have a powerful inhibiting effect on the glucose spike we experience after meals.  This is an area that has received far too little attention by doctors and researchers.  Typically they only are concerned with fasting glucose levels – which are healthy in about the 70 – 100  mg/dl range.  Post prandial (after meal)  glucose spikes can often reach and float at over 180 mg/dl.  This temporary spike is capable of inflicting serious long term damage.

 It does this through the action of  chlorogenic acid which inhibits the production of glucose in multiple processes (glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis for example)  and it is shown that the beneficial results are greatly increased when one consumes higher volumes – as much as 5 – 12 cups per day.

So if you are considering a high protein diet, have a type ll diabetis problem, or you want to slow age related cognitive decline, have a cup of medication.   Or two or three.