The popularity of coffee didn’t begin with Starbucks.
Coffee cultivation and trade began on the Arabian Peninsula. By the 15th century, coffee was being grown in the Yemeni district of Arabia and by the 16th century it was known in Persia, Egypt, Syria and Turkey.
Coffee was not only enjoyed in homes, but also in the many public coffee houses – called qahveh khaneh – which began to appear in cities across the Near East. The popularity of the coffee houses was unequaled and people frequented them for all kinds of social activity.
European travelers to the Near East brought back stories of an unusual dark black beverage. By the 17th century, coffee had made its way to Europe and was becoming popular across the continent.
Some people reacted to this new beverage with suspicion or fear, calling it the “bitter invention of Satan.” The local clergy condemned coffee when it came to Venice in 1615. The controversy was so great that Pope Clement VIII was asked to intervene. He decided to taste the beverage for himself before making a decision, and found the drink so satisfying that he gave it papal approval.
Coffee was a big hit with Thomas Jefferson, as well, who called it “the favorite drink of the civilized world.”
That quote is believed to refer to the New World’s break from England and disdain for English tea following the Boston Tea Party, a 1773 revolt by colonists against a heavy tax on tea imposed by King George III.
Coffee comes from the seeds of a small tree in the genus Coffea. Normally there are two “coffee” seeds inside a fruit called a cherry. In fact, people are often surprised to learn that coffee is in fact considered a fruit. It’s crucial that coffee cherries be picked at the perfect point of maturity to provide the most flavor. Most coffee cherries ripen to a rich red color when they reach this point and are then considered ready for the harvesting process. Because coffee cherries ripen at different times, the picking part can extend over quite a lengthy period.
During the processing of the coffee cherry, the seeds inside the fruit become known as coffee beans.
While there are more than 75 known coffee species, some 70% of the world’s coffee production comes from the Coffea Arabica species, commonly referred to as “Arabica.” This is the earliest cultivated species of coffee tree and still the most widely grown. It is dramatically superior in cup quality to the other principal commercial coffee species, Coffea canephora (robusta coffee).
Then there’s a large number of sub-species that exist within the Arabica species, providing coffee lovers with the opportunity to explore unique flavoring.
There have been an amazing number of articles both touting and doubting health benefits associated with coffee.
Probably the No. 1 health benefit coffee supporters point to is the energy boost from drinking coffee. It’s believed that the caffeine in coffee stimulates our nervous system, speeding up the transmission of messages between our brain and body.
The caffeine in coffee beans serves as a toxic substance protecting the seeds of the plant, a form of natural plant defense against herbivory. Caffeine simultaneously attracts pollinators, specifically honeybees, by creating an olfactory memory that signals bees to return to the plant’s flowers.
Coffee drinkers say they typically start to feel the effects of coffee’s caffeine within 5-30 minutes of drinking it, and the effects can last for up to 12 hours.
However, the effects we feel depend on many individual factors like our body mass, metabolism and caffeine tolerance. For someone who rarely drinks caffeinated beverages or is more sensitive to caffeine, a small dose can have a big effect. On the other hand, regular coffee drinkers may find that they need increasingly stronger coffees to get the same energy boost that they used to feel.
Another major claim is that coffee can act as a laxative – which can be good if you suffer from constipation, or bad if you’re in the middle of an important board meeting. Some feel that the caffeine of coffee not only keeps us alert as a stimulant, but it might also induce bile production that increases bowel movements. Caffeine-rich coffee might also make your colon and intestinal muscles more active.
Also commonly believed is that coffee can help prevent developing type 2 diabetes, which is milder than type 1 diabetes but can still cause major health complications especially in the tiny blood vessels in your kidneys, nerves and eyes. Type 2 diabetes also increases risk of heart disease and stroke. This may be due to cafestol – a bioactive compound present in coffee – which might increase insulin secretion, reducing fasting glucose levels, and improved insulin sensitivity.
Another popular claim is that coffee can help us lose weight. This is allegedly accomplished by stimulating “brown fat,” which burns calories to generate body heat. The idea here is that brown fat works in a different way than other fat in your body and produces heat by burning sugar and fat, often in response to cold.
There’s also a common belief that coffee can safeguard the liver and promote heart health, possibly by improving blood vessels’ control over blood flow and blood pressure.
Additionally, suggestions exist that coffee can slow the progression of dementia, including Alzheimer’s because coffee could increase production of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor, which might help the brain in several ways. One of those other ways might be helping control Parkinson’s disease symptoms.
One other significant health claim is that the caffeine in coffee acts as a kind of “sunscreen effect” that inhibits DNA mutations that might lead to the development of melanoma skin cancer.
Coffee enemas have gained in popularity as a means of having multiple bowel movements that help purge the colon. Rectally, coffee is also used to treat cancer. Coffee enemas are used as a part of the “Gerson Therapy.” In the Gerson Therapy, cancer patients are treated with caffeinated coffee in the form of enemas every four hours on a daily basis. During the treatment people are given a diet of liver, vegetables, and a variety of other supplements. However, this type of therapy is considered an unacceptable medical practice in the U.S.
The flip side of caffeine’s energizing impact is insomnia. After eight to 10 hours, 75% of the caffeine is gone. For most people, a cup of coffee or two in the morning won’t interfere with sleep at night. But if you get caffeine later in the day, it can mess up your sleep that night.
Caffeine increases dopamine similar to the way that amphetamines do. This increases alertness, and also may be part of what makes caffeine so habit-forming. Caffeine suppresses melatonin. This is one key way caffeine can disrupt your normal sleep-wake cycle.
Also, the effects of coffee on weight management are most likely good and bad. Its benefits include appetite control and improved metabolism, which could aid weight loss. But the other side is that coffee’s caffeine can lead to poor sleep and more sugar cravings in certain individuals. Both these factors may negatively impact weight. In addition, many coffee beverages contain added sugar and excessive calories.
Comes down to this: Black coffee without any additional ingredients is very low in calories and may help you achieve a healthy weight. One cup of brewed coffee has only 2 calories. But only 2 ounces of cream adds 120 calories and 12 grams of fat; 1 teaspoon of sugar adds 16 calories.
Caffeine has also been identified as a target for triggering heartburn symptoms, including GERD. This occurs if caffeine irritates the esophagus or weakens the lower esophageal sphincter (LES). A weakened lower esophageal sphincter can lead to the backward flow of stomach contents – and that causes acid reflux.
Drinking unfiltered coffee can increase total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and levels of another type of blood fat called triglycerides. This might increase the risk of developing heart disease. Using coffee filters helps to reduce these effects on cholesterol.
And, while drinking a few cups of coffee a day is probably safe for most people, there’s some concern that drinking more than five cups of coffee per day might not be a good idea for people with heart disease. Yet, for people who don’t have heart disease, drinking several cups daily does not seem to increase the chance of developing a heart problem.
Additionally, drinking large amounts of caffeinated coffee might cause headache, anxiety, agitation, ringing in the ears, and irregular heartbeats. Drinking more than six cups daily, for instance, might cause “caffeinism” with symptoms such as anxiety or agitation.
Also, people who drink a lot of caffeinated coffee every day may need to drink more coffee to get the same effects. They may also become “dependent” on coffee to the point that they develop withdrawal symptoms if they suddenly stop drinking it.
For women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, consuming more than three cups of coffee per day has been linked to an increased risk of miscarriage, premature birth and low birth weight. These risks increase as the amount of coffee the mother drinks during pregnancy increases.
Caffeine can pass into breast milk as well, so nursing mothers should closely monitor caffeine intake to make sure it is on the low side (1-2 cups per day). High intake of caffeine by nursing mothers can cause sleep problems, irritability, and increased bowel activity in breastfed infants.
When given as an enema, coffee is potentially unsafe and has been linked to cases of severe side effects.
The choice of coffee, grind, amount of coffee to water, and other factors determine flavor and strength of coffee.
Brewed coffee contains around 100-150 mg caffeine per cup. Instant coffee contains 85-100 mg caffeine per cup. Decaffeinated coffee contains approximately 8 mg caffeine per cup. Darker roasts contain less caffeine due to the roasting process.
Tests have shown that cold brewed coffee can have 66% less acidity and bitterness when compared to hot coffee. The acids that normally become bitter in hot coffee (even with proper water temperatures) don’t get extracted.
Coffee can also be filtered or unfiltered. Filtered coffee includes drip and pour over coffee, and any other coffees that pass through a filter. Unfiltered coffee includes espresso, Turkish coffee and those made using a French press or moka pot, none of which use a filter.
The studies are considerable, and many seem to confirm both the good and bad about drinking coffee. In other words, coffee consumption has been investigated for associations with a diverse range of health outcomes.
According to NCBI, studies conclusively show that coffee is a complex mixture of more than 800 volatile compounds with caffeine and chlorogenic acids the most common compounds. During the last years, coffee has progressively moved to a less negative position on health due to its better-known pharmacology. Caffeine in a cup of coffee exerts most of its effects through an antagonism of the adenosine receptors. Therefore, its global popularity stems from its stimulating effects on the central nervous system.
While caffeine’s short-term stimulating effect on the central nervous system is pretty clear, its long-term impact on cognition is still being investigated. It is possible that drinking coffee may have a protective effect against dementia. A study from the University of Kuopio (Finland) and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (Sweden) showed that moderate coffee drinkers had a 65% lower risk for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease later in life than other groups.
Known as the Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) study, researchers looked at figures from 1,409 adults aged 65 to 79 who had been followed for an average of 21 years. Of these, 61 had been diagnosed with dementia. Daily coffee consumption was categorized into low (0-2 cups), moderate (3-5 cups) and high (more than five cups).
Coffee’s possible positive impact on helping to prevent type 2 diabetes is also encouraging. The most positive trials involve coffee as a possible prevention mechanism for developing type 2 diabetes. The most important study was one that researchers at Harvard conducted where they tracked over 100,000 people for about 20 years. Published in 2014, the results found that people who increased their coffee intake by over one cup per day had an 11% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
However, people who reduced their coffee intake by one cup per day increased their risk of developing diabetes by 17%.
But, despite the incisive results of the study, it’s still not known why coffee has such an impact on the development of diabetes.
Numerous studies have also shown a link between coffee consumption and reduced risk of cirrhosis – the end stage of liver damage caused by diseases like alcoholism and hepatitis, where liver tissue has been largely replaced by scar tissue.
One such study, performed in 1993, tested an Italian population of 2,240 with findings indicating a decrease in GGT enzymes in drinkers of three or more cups of coffee daily when compared to groups drinking less than this amount. GGT is elevated in the blood in most diseases that cause damage to the liver or bile ducts.
It’s also possible that consuming coffee really is beneficial to your skin. Several studies lean in that direction including one citied in PubMed that showed low facial pigmented spots in Japanese middle-aged females who were coffee drinkers. Researchers believe the decreased anti-aging spots is due to coffee’s extreme level of polyphenol enzymes. Coffee is one of the most polyphenol-rich beverages containing 214 mg of total polyphenols per 100 ml.
Regarding coffee and weight loss – that’s sort of a stretch.
There have been studies showing possible minimal weight loss such as a recent Harvard study that claims drinking four cups of coffee a day might reduce body fat by about 4%. Most researchers believe if there’s any connection between coffee and weight loss it’s because the caffeine in coffee increases a drinker’s metabolism.
As far as coffee enemas go, there seems to be little doubt that putting coffee in your mouth offers many more possible health benefits. There’s no scientific evidence that proves or disproves that coffee enemas are helpful to treat any medical condition.
Also, the claim that coffee helps cardiovascular health is still uncertain and being studied. According to the American Heart Association, “The results are conflicting.”
It would appear that coffee is good for you – mostly. The key is how much you drink and what you put in it.
Most of the health benefits associated with coffee refers to black coffee without the fats and sugar found in “doctored coffee drinks,” which are more akin to dessert than coffee. A Starbucks Venti White Chocolate Mocha, for instance, has 580 calories, 22 grams of fat (15 of which are saturated) and 75 grams of sugar. A plain cup of brewed coffee – two calories, no fat and zero carbs.
It’s true that black coffee is linked with numerous health benefits, which are mainly attributed to its antioxidant content and other active substances.
However, it’s important to understand that many coffee/health studies are mainly observational. They cannot prove that coffee caused the benefits, only that drinking coffee is associated with them.
Also, keep in mind that coffee is for adults. One study, published in 2014 in the journal Pediatrics, showed that even small amounts of caffeine, equivalent to one cup of coffee, increased children’s blood pressure and – to compensate for the rise in blood pressure – slowed heart rates.
