6 ms·

Americans should drink more coffee

43 points by ulysses 12y ago

srameshc 12y ago
This article doesn't mention quantity in standard unit like ml and doesn't mention that coffee shouldn't be adulterated with pumps of sugars.
hackbinary 12y ago
How many cups of coffee do people drink in Seattle and Vancouver, and is that linked to their longevity?
- jefe78 12y ago
  Vancouver reporting in! Consumption is quite high from my anecdotal experience. I personally consume ~3-6 cups a day. I work in the tech field up here and that seems to be pretty standard.
  - buckbova 12y ago
    And you're 106 years old?
  - wwweston 12y ago
    And since the tech industry is known for its high concentration of workers productive well into their later decades... ;)
imperialdrive 12y ago
I was just debating whether to go out for coffee now, or in an hour. Now it is! Most people I work with splash a lot of cream and sugar in their coffee - probably hurts the study.
neves 12y ago
Does this 3 cups is of expresso, filtered, or the watery stuff common in USA?
- Spearchucker 12y ago
  Imagine you're being downvoted for the watery stuff from the USA part. Careful, you're offending those who take their coffee seriously. I prefer German or Italian, personally. Coffee in France is too bitter. Something happens (even to Italian coffee) as it crosses the channel into the UK that sucks the taste out of it, and puts it into tea. I consider standard-fare American coffee a torture technique. Worst coffee I ever experienced was in Israel. But all of these are my personal taste. Opinions will differ as much as there are stars in the sky, grains of sand on the beach. And every opinion is correct, and valid. Because while some of us are similar, none of us are the same. If you're going to inadvertently dis' someone else's choice, make your intent known - i.e. point out that it's just your opinion. Don't give it that superiority-stance.
  - j_lev 12y ago
    If the drip coffee coming out of the US these days (think: Blue Bottle) is "watery" then I'll take it with extra water, thanks. Just got a Blue Bottle down the road here in Tokyo, and if you can get over the 450 yen pricetag and 90 minute lineup then you are rewarded with a delicious cup of Joe.
- nmrm 12y ago
  3 cups of espresso would be a fantastic amount of coffee. You'd actually have a medical condition of you drank that much espresso every day: ~64 mg caffeine / ounce in espresso 64 mg/ounce * 8 ounces * 3 = 1536 mg From wikipedia: "Consumption of 1000–1500 mg per day is associated with a condition known as caffeinism."
  - SEMW 12y ago
    I imagine when most people say 'a cup of espresso' they're thinking of a demitasse of the stuff, not using '1 cup' in the unit-of-volume sense (which'd be an ~octuple espresso)
  - jksmith 12y ago
    Cut with a top shelf rum to counteract this condition. Mt Gay Black Barrel, Goslings, or Zaya to suggest a few.
bluthru 12y ago
Is it possible to see how much if any money was given to the committee from the coffee industry? http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/committee/#members http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/committee/#members
- copperx 12y ago
  Exactly my thoughts. I am surprised that they aren't recommending K-Cups.
  - ianstallings 12y ago
    I wouldn't be surprised to find some hidden text on the page - Drink More Ovaltine
    - charlesism 12y ago
      You get my vote for the greatest comment ever written.
- bicknergseng 12y ago
  Was my first thought, too, after reading about the link between the sugar industry and those early sugar studies. Seems to me like the scientific community should be overly open about its sources of funding, conflicts of interest, etc if it wants to maintain public trust going forward.
  - nmrm 12y ago
    It is. Typically if you publish in a respected and peer reviewed journal, you are required to disclose sources of funding in the article. Especially if those sources include for-profit companies, you're in for a world of hurt if you don't. But the "scientific community", so far as such a thing exists, can't censure news reports, government reports, or corporate reports that claim "X is true because science". It also cannot stop someone from publishing a "scientific" journal. "Science" is not a Trade Mark, and scientists cannot solve for clueless consumers who believe everything if you say "because science!" Especially when those same consumers fail to fund / pay attention in quality post-secondary science education.
lupinglade 12y ago
Not so healthy with cream and sugar...
ianstallings 12y ago
That might be kind of tough. We're already taking it via IV.
kazinator 12y ago
Ha, I just noticed a referenced story below this one: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/14/almost-half-of-the-world-actually-prefers-instant-coffee/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/14/a... Me too! I used to hunt for freshly and properly roasted quality beans, and grind them myself before each brew, and all that. What I have come to this this: few coffees compare to Nescafe Gold a.k.a. Taster's Choice. Certainly nothing that you can order around town from places like ####bucks or whatever. Those Nestle buggers have figured out how to make great testing freeze-dried coffee. And it's so consistent! I've drank the stuff under different names on different continents, and it's exactly the same. (Modulo minor variations like "blend" or "dark roast"). And it's so cheap and easy just to throw a teaspoon of brown powder into hot water. Why bother with anything else. Whenever I happen to have a coffee somewhere (socially, since I'd never do such a thing by myself any more) I'm actually wishing that the damn slop was Nescafe Gold!
- dntrkv 12y ago
  I feel the title of that article is misleading. From the article: '"The markets where instant coffee is most popular tend to be the ones without a strong tradition of coffee drinking," Dana LaMendola, and industry analyst at Euromonitor, said in an interview. "It's basically an entry point."' So it's not that people prefer one over the other, it's because they don't have much of a coffee culture and people don't really care about the quality of their coffee. Saying you prefer instant coffee to quality, roasted beans is like saying you prefer a prepackaged, microwavable dinner to a properly cooked meal.
  - jqm 12y ago
    Depending on who is cooking the meal... absolutely I'll take the microwave dinner!
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    Or, places with a "strong tradition of coffee drinking" are resistant to change independent of actual quality -- because coffee is ritualized -- and so tend not to prefer instant coffee even to cheap (in the quality rather than price sense) roasted beans.
therealidiot 12y ago
This world is clearly not meant for those of us who dislike coffee :-(
- JetSpiegel 12y ago
  And alcohol. I think I'll just say I'm a Muslim or something.
guelo 12y ago
It's weird that the panel didn't take into account the harmful effects of disrupted sleep patterns. They did note a concern about the extra calories from milk and sugar added to coffee.
brandon272 12y ago
Is it possible to get these supposed benefits from coffee if it's decaf?
- maxerickson 12y ago
  The research is quite focused on caffeine but mentions some benefit from decaf: http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/14-appendix-e2/e2-39a.asp http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/1...
  - wwweston 12y ago
    From the link: "Coffee consumption was associated with reduced risk of total mortality (3-4% lower mortality with 1 cup/day), especially cardiovascular mortality" "Decaffeinated coffee consumption was associated with a lower risk of death" This makes it sound like coffee consumption helps and decaf consumption helps more when it comes to mortality risks. Also, if I'm reading it right, that link says unfiltered caffeinated increases LDL blood levels, which I'm given to understand is bad. It sounds like decaf is better...
    - maxerickson 12y ago
      I read "Decaffeinated coffee consumption was associated with a lower risk of death" to mean that they lack sufficient data to quantify it, not as a comparison to caffeinated.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
everyone 12y ago
I decided to give up caffeine. I used to drink a lot of tea. I thought maybe it was making me anxious + using caffeine as a stimulant is a zero-sum game.
- quanticle 12y ago
  You don't have to necessarily give up tea because you've given up caffeine. There are lots of no-caffeine teas out there (many of which are quite good). I've (largely) given up caffeine as well, but I still enjoy a warm cup of tea in the morning, especially in winter. :)
  - everyone 12y ago
    Yeah I drink a thing called 'barley cup' its grand!
- themodelplumber 12y ago
  I hear you. After not consuming any caffeine for around five years, I ordered a small caffeinated beverage to sip on while I watched X-Men: Days of Future Past in the theater. That turned out to be one of the most stressful moviegoing experiences I can remember. The movie was pretty extreme, but I was talking my buddy's ear off during the more exciting scenes and felt like I couldn't stop thinking and just enjoy the show. I walked out feeling pretty raw and chuckling at the thought of the caffeine as a light indulgence that I had thought would just remind me of my younger days. I'm still not dead set against caffeine for everybody or anything, but I doubt I'll drink it again by choice.
- Dylan16807 12y ago
  Zero sum is not necessarily a bad thing, though.
colept 12y ago
Tomorrow there will be a study that says coffee is poison, and the next day it will be a miracle cure. It's difficult to take these arguments seriously when they're countered almost daily. Life is about taking calculated risks. I prefer the moderation route.
- metasean 12y ago
  According to the Daily Mail, it's currently 8 to 2 in favor of coffee preventing cancer - http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/a-z/c#term133 http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/a-z/c#term133 (Chocolate on the other hand is 2:0 in favor of prevention - http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/a-z/c#term121 http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/a-z/c#term121)
- Tloewald 12y ago
  The whole "they'll keep saying the opposite thing anyway" argument is tired. Sure, there have been prominent reversals, but usually behind it is an industry lobby group, not science. There have been studies attempting to show coffee is harmful for decades (basically, there seems to be a general suspicion that anything people enjoy is probably harmful), and the results have been consistently ambiguous or in favor of coffee.
wwweston 12y ago
OTOH: http://www.inc.com/travis-bradberry/caffeine-the-silent-killer-of-success.html http://www.inc.com/travis-bradberry/caffeine-the-silent-kill... Claims: caffeine only improves mental performance in those habituated to caffeine, triggers body chemistry leaning towards fight/flight responses, disrupts sleep None of this is necessarily at odds with the WaPo article, which appears to mostly claim that there are no increased mortality/chronic disease risks associated with high coffee consumption (and some decreased risk of diabetes/cardiovascular risk?).
- Dylan16807 12y ago
  Disrupted sleep has terrible effects. I don't see how these ideas can coexist.
- vmarsy 12y ago
  This should be taken with a huge grain of salt: The article pointed is dated Feb 2015 but see all these articles: [1] from September 2014 [2] from Feb 2015 [3] from September 2014 [6] : From August _2012_ All from this "Dr. Travis ..." . They all quote "New research from Johns Hopkins Medical School" , without ever giving the source of that research. If you google a bit for it you will find some information from Johns Hopkins University[4] : "Caffeine Has Positive Effect on Memory"; some study [5] from The Johns Hopkins Precursors Study in 2002 (so hardly "new") discuss about coffee, but "these associations were not statistically significant". You will notice that from August 2012 to February 2015, it was always "New research" In conclusion, this LinkedIn blog post (from which all articles copy/paste from) lacks a lot of sources, especially if written by someone who holds a dual Ph.D. in clinical and industrial-organizational psychology (according to his Forbes personal page). [1] http://www.ihcus.com/2014/09/11/the-effects-of-coffee- http://www.ihcus.com/2014/09/11/the-effects-of-coffee- helpful-or-harmful/ [2]http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-drinking-one-cup-of-coffee-each-day-is-killing-your-success-2015-2 http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-drinking-one-cup-of... [3] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140908162020-50578967-caffeine-the-silent-killer-of-success https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140908162020-50578967-caffe... [4] http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/stories/caffeine_memory.html http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/stories/caffeine_memory.... [5] http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=211334 http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=21133... [6] : http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2012/08/21/caffeine-the-silent-killer-of-emotional-intelligence/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2012/08/21/caffe...
philip1209 12y ago
It frustrates me that they never give the official name of the panel.
mitchi 12y ago
If you are someone that doesn't eat many vegetables or take vitamins, I can see why coffee would be recommended. It does contain a very high amount of flavanols antioxydants... I'm not a big fan of the caffeine however.
- Tloewald 12y ago
  Caffeine is a surprisingly benign "drug" (especially since it appears to have evolved as a natural insecticide). Personally, I'm not a "fan" of taking vitamins.
  - everyone 12y ago
    Yes. Isn't there no evidence in favour of taking vitamin supplement? And recently mounting evidence that in fact it may be harmful if anything?
ZeroCoin 12y ago
>it's unlikely to do anything other than make you more alert and awake. I find that extremely hard to believe. If I drink 5 cups of coffee per day I get heart palpitations, an upset stomach, and am extremely irritable in general. The same goes for my significant other. I actually went to a heart specialist and wore a heart monitor for 48 hours last year because I was having an irregular heartbeat and would black-out occasionally after jumping up out of a chair. The diagnosis? I'm fine. I just need to ingest less caffeine. I think I'll stick with my one cup per day, below average amount. It's just enough to wake up me, keep me alert, without any of the negative effects that caffeine brings with it.
xasos 12y ago
If your sole purpose of drinking coffee is for the caffeine, caffeine pills are a great alternative. Sure there is a lot of negative stigmatism around pills in general, but they are significantly cheaper and more effective than drinking pure coffee.

43 points by ulysses 12y ago

This article doesn't mention quantity in standard unit like ml and doesn't mention that coffee shouldn't be adulterated with pumps of sugars.

hackbinary 12y ago

How many cups of coffee do people drink in Seattle and Vancouver, and is that linked to their longevity?

jefe78 12y ago
Vancouver reporting in! Consumption is quite high from my anecdotal experience. I personally consume ~3-6 cups a day. I work in the tech field up here and that seems to be pretty standard.
- buckbova 12y ago
  And you're 106 years old?
- wwweston 12y ago
  And since the tech industry is known for its high concentration of workers productive well into their later decades... ;)

imperialdrive 12y ago

I was just debating whether to go out for coffee now, or in an hour. Now it is! Most people I work with splash a lot of cream and sugar in their coffee - probably hurts the study.

neves 12y ago

Does this 3 cups is of expresso, filtered, or the watery stuff common in USA?

Spearchucker 12y ago
Imagine you're being downvoted for the watery stuff from the USA part. Careful, you're offending those who take their coffee seriously. I prefer German or Italian, personally. Coffee in France is too bitter. Something happens (even to Italian coffee) as it crosses the channel into the UK that sucks the taste out of it, and puts it into tea. I consider standard-fare American coffee a torture technique. Worst coffee I ever experienced was in Israel. But all of these are my personal taste. Opinions will differ as much as there are stars in the sky, grains of sand on the beach. And every opinion is correct, and valid. Because while some of us are similar, none of us are the same. If you're going to inadvertently dis' someone else's choice, make your intent known - i.e. point out that it's just your opinion. Don't give it that superiority-stance.
- j_lev 12y ago
  If the drip coffee coming out of the US these days (think: Blue Bottle) is "watery" then I'll take it with extra water, thanks. Just got a Blue Bottle down the road here in Tokyo, and if you can get over the 450 yen pricetag and 90 minute lineup then you are rewarded with a delicious cup of Joe.
nmrm 12y ago
3 cups of espresso would be a fantastic amount of coffee. You'd actually have a medical condition of you drank that much espresso every day: ~64 mg caffeine / ounce in espresso 64 mg/ounce * 8 ounces * 3 = 1536 mg From wikipedia: "Consumption of 1000–1500 mg per day is associated with a condition known as caffeinism."
- SEMW 12y ago
  I imagine when most people say 'a cup of espresso' they're thinking of a demitasse of the stuff, not using '1 cup' in the unit-of-volume sense (which'd be an ~octuple espresso)
- jksmith 12y ago
  Cut with a top shelf rum to counteract this condition. Mt Gay Black Barrel, Goslings, or Zaya to suggest a few.

bluthru 12y ago

Is it possible to see how much if any money was given to the committee from the coffee industry? http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/committee/#members http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/committee/#members

copperx 12y ago
Exactly my thoughts. I am surprised that they aren't recommending K-Cups.
- ianstallings 12y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised to find some hidden text on the page - Drink More Ovaltine
  - charlesism 12y ago
    You get my vote for the greatest comment ever written.
bicknergseng 12y ago
Was my first thought, too, after reading about the link between the sugar industry and those early sugar studies. Seems to me like the scientific community should be overly open about its sources of funding, conflicts of interest, etc if it wants to maintain public trust going forward.
- nmrm 12y ago
  It is. Typically if you publish in a respected and peer reviewed journal, you are required to disclose sources of funding in the article. Especially if those sources include for-profit companies, you're in for a world of hurt if you don't. But the "scientific community", so far as such a thing exists, can't censure news reports, government reports, or corporate reports that claim "X is true because science". It also cannot stop someone from publishing a "scientific" journal. "Science" is not a Trade Mark, and scientists cannot solve for clueless consumers who believe everything if you say "because science!" Especially when those same consumers fail to fund / pay attention in quality post-secondary science education.

lupinglade 12y ago

Not so healthy with cream and sugar...

ianstallings 12y ago

That might be kind of tough. We're already taking it via IV.

kazinator 12y ago

Ha, I just noticed a referenced story below this one: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/14/almost-half-of-the-world-actually-prefers-instant-coffee/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/14/a... Me too! I used to hunt for freshly and properly roasted quality beans, and grind them myself before each brew, and all that. What I have come to this this: few coffees compare to Nescafe Gold a.k.a. Taster's Choice. Certainly nothing that you can order around town from places like ####bucks or whatever. Those Nestle buggers have figured out how to make great testing freeze-dried coffee. And it's so consistent! I've drank the stuff under different names on different continents, and it's exactly the same. (Modulo minor variations like "blend" or "dark roast"). And it's so cheap and easy just to throw a teaspoon of brown powder into hot water. Why bother with anything else. Whenever I happen to have a coffee somewhere (socially, since I'd never do such a thing by myself any more) I'm actually wishing that the damn slop was Nescafe Gold!

dntrkv 12y ago
I feel the title of that article is misleading. From the article: '"The markets where instant coffee is most popular tend to be the ones without a strong tradition of coffee drinking," Dana LaMendola, and industry analyst at Euromonitor, said in an interview. "It's basically an entry point."' So it's not that people prefer one over the other, it's because they don't have much of a coffee culture and people don't really care about the quality of their coffee. Saying you prefer instant coffee to quality, roasted beans is like saying you prefer a prepackaged, microwavable dinner to a properly cooked meal.
- jqm 12y ago
  Depending on who is cooking the meal... absolutely I'll take the microwave dinner!
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  Or, places with a "strong tradition of coffee drinking" are resistant to change independent of actual quality -- because coffee is ritualized -- and so tend not to prefer instant coffee even to cheap (in the quality rather than price sense) roasted beans.

therealidiot 12y ago

This world is clearly not meant for those of us who dislike coffee :-(

JetSpiegel 12y ago
And alcohol. I think I'll just say I'm a Muslim or something.

guelo 12y ago

It's weird that the panel didn't take into account the harmful effects of disrupted sleep patterns. They did note a concern about the extra calories from milk and sugar added to coffee.

brandon272 12y ago

Is it possible to get these supposed benefits from coffee if it's decaf?

maxerickson 12y ago
The research is quite focused on caffeine but mentions some benefit from decaf: http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/14-appendix-e2/e2-39a.asp http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/1...
- wwweston 12y ago
  From the link: "Coffee consumption was associated with reduced risk of total mortality (3-4% lower mortality with 1 cup/day), especially cardiovascular mortality" "Decaffeinated coffee consumption was associated with a lower risk of death" This makes it sound like coffee consumption helps and decaf consumption helps more when it comes to mortality risks. Also, if I'm reading it right, that link says unfiltered caffeinated increases LDL blood levels, which I'm given to understand is bad. It sounds like decaf is better...
  - maxerickson 12y ago
    I read "Decaffeinated coffee consumption was associated with a lower risk of death" to mean that they lack sufficient data to quantify it, not as a comparison to caffeinated.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

everyone 12y ago

I decided to give up caffeine. I used to drink a lot of tea. I thought maybe it was making me anxious + using caffeine as a stimulant is a zero-sum game.

quanticle 12y ago
You don't have to necessarily give up tea because you've given up caffeine. There are lots of no-caffeine teas out there (many of which are quite good). I've (largely) given up caffeine as well, but I still enjoy a warm cup of tea in the morning, especially in winter. :)
- everyone 12y ago
  Yeah I drink a thing called 'barley cup' its grand!
themodelplumber 12y ago
I hear you. After not consuming any caffeine for around five years, I ordered a small caffeinated beverage to sip on while I watched X-Men: Days of Future Past in the theater. That turned out to be one of the most stressful moviegoing experiences I can remember. The movie was pretty extreme, but I was talking my buddy's ear off during the more exciting scenes and felt like I couldn't stop thinking and just enjoy the show. I walked out feeling pretty raw and chuckling at the thought of the caffeine as a light indulgence that I had thought would just remind me of my younger days. I'm still not dead set against caffeine for everybody or anything, but I doubt I'll drink it again by choice.
Dylan16807 12y ago
Zero sum is not necessarily a bad thing, though.

colept 12y ago

Tomorrow there will be a study that says coffee is poison, and the next day it will be a miracle cure. It's difficult to take these arguments seriously when they're countered almost daily. Life is about taking calculated risks. I prefer the moderation route.

metasean 12y ago
According to the Daily Mail, it's currently 8 to 2 in favor of coffee preventing cancer - http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/a-z/c#term133 http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/a-z/c#term133 (Chocolate on the other hand is 2:0 in favor of prevention - http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/a-z/c#term121 http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/a-z/c#term121)
Tloewald 12y ago
The whole "they'll keep saying the opposite thing anyway" argument is tired. Sure, there have been prominent reversals, but usually behind it is an industry lobby group, not science. There have been studies attempting to show coffee is harmful for decades (basically, there seems to be a general suspicion that anything people enjoy is probably harmful), and the results have been consistently ambiguous or in favor of coffee.

wwweston 12y ago

OTOH: http://www.inc.com/travis-bradberry/caffeine-the-silent-killer-of-success.html http://www.inc.com/travis-bradberry/caffeine-the-silent-kill... Claims: caffeine only improves mental performance in those habituated to caffeine, triggers body chemistry leaning towards fight/flight responses, disrupts sleep None of this is necessarily at odds with the WaPo article, which appears to mostly claim that there are no increased mortality/chronic disease risks associated with high coffee consumption (and some decreased risk of diabetes/cardiovascular risk?).

Dylan16807 12y ago
Disrupted sleep has terrible effects. I don't see how these ideas can coexist.
vmarsy 12y ago
This should be taken with a huge grain of salt: The article pointed is dated Feb 2015 but see all these articles: [1] from September 2014 [2] from Feb 2015 [3] from September 2014 [6] : From August _2012_ All from this "Dr. Travis ..." . They all quote "New research from Johns Hopkins Medical School" , without ever giving the source of that research. If you google a bit for it you will find some information from Johns Hopkins University[4] : "Caffeine Has Positive Effect on Memory"; some study [5] from The Johns Hopkins Precursors Study in 2002 (so hardly "new") discuss about coffee, but "these associations were not statistically significant". You will notice that from August 2012 to February 2015, it was always "New research" In conclusion, this LinkedIn blog post (from which all articles copy/paste from) lacks a lot of sources, especially if written by someone who holds a dual Ph.D. in clinical and industrial-organizational psychology (according to his Forbes personal page). [1] http://www.ihcus.com/2014/09/11/the-effects-of-coffee- http://www.ihcus.com/2014/09/11/the-effects-of-coffee- helpful-or-harmful/ [2]http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-drinking-one-cup-of-coffee-each-day-is-killing-your-success-2015-2 http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-drinking-one-cup-of... [3] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140908162020-50578967-caffeine-the-silent-killer-of-success https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140908162020-50578967-caffe... [4] http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/stories/caffeine_memory.html http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/stories/caffeine_memory.... [5] http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=211334 http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=21133... [6] : http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2012/08/21/caffeine-the-silent-killer-of-emotional-intelligence/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2012/08/21/caffe...

philip1209 12y ago

It frustrates me that they never give the official name of the panel.

mitchi 12y ago

If you are someone that doesn't eat many vegetables or take vitamins, I can see why coffee would be recommended. It does contain a very high amount of flavanols antioxydants... I'm not a big fan of the caffeine however.

Tloewald 12y ago
Caffeine is a surprisingly benign "drug" (especially since it appears to have evolved as a natural insecticide). Personally, I'm not a "fan" of taking vitamins.
- everyone 12y ago
  Yes. Isn't there no evidence in favour of taking vitamin supplement? And recently mounting evidence that in fact it may be harmful if anything?

ZeroCoin 12y ago

>it's unlikely to do anything other than make you more alert and awake. I find that extremely hard to believe. If I drink 5 cups of coffee per day I get heart palpitations, an upset stomach, and am extremely irritable in general. The same goes for my significant other. I actually went to a heart specialist and wore a heart monitor for 48 hours last year because I was having an irregular heartbeat and would black-out occasionally after jumping up out of a chair. The diagnosis? I'm fine. I just need to ingest less caffeine. I think I'll stick with my one cup per day, below average amount. It's just enough to wake up me, keep me alert, without any of the negative effects that caffeine brings with it.

xasos 12y ago

If your sole purpose of drinking coffee is for the caffeine, caffeine pills are a great alternative. Sure there is a lot of negative stigmatism around pills in general, but they are significantly cheaper and more effective than drinking pure coffee.