Stop Dissin' my Coffee

Sorry, I can't buy the "just one cup of coffee can kill you" crud coming from the journal Epidemiology (the accompanying editorial can be viewed here). No placebo control group was used and there's just too many covariates to make any meaning of the data. It's particularly bad when such crud is picked up by the mainstream media. The study flies in the face of any "dose-response" theory as we know it. Why would 4 cups not hurt you but one would? The authors offer no plausable explanation. If this was true, I know lots of folks who would have died long ago.

"For people with multiple risk factors for a heart attack and those who have a sedentary lifestyle, a cup of coffee could be the final straw," says Ahmed El-Sohemy, Ph.D., an assistant professor of nutrition at the University of Toronto. "One should aim to remove some of these known risk factors and have a more active lifestyle."

Coffee as a trigger? Doubt it. Why do we now see the benefits of coffee to prevent Type II diabetes or prevent cirrhosis or improve the health (and lower heart attack risk) in postmenopausal women. Since this latest study came from Costa Rica - could it me a back-handed ploy to get people to drink more than one cup of coffee?

I think the most damaging part of coffee for your heart is the transmogrification of a good cup of Joe into these nuclear fat balls (like frappachinos) dispensed at Starbucks.

I'll still have my coffee black, thank you. And if I'm not here tomorrow, oh well...

--Wes