Coffee

Drink Right For Your Type

"It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity. I bet this kind of thing does not happen to heroin addicts. I bet that when serious heroin addicts go to purchase their heroin, they do not tolerate waiting in line while some dilettante in front of them orders a hazelnut smack-a-cino with cinnamon sprinkles".

I was addicted to coffee by the time I joined the Marines in '68, two months out of high school. When it was still bad for you.

My first inkling that it might not be the worst addiction was Peter D'Adamo's fascinating book "Eat Right for Your Type". In this book Dr. D'Adamo, continuing the work that his father started, classifies foods into three categories - "Highly Beneficial", "Neutral", and "Avoid", for each of the four blood types.

I won't give away much of Dr. D'Adamo's research here, but I will say that I was most happy to find that coffee was one of the three "Highly Beneficial" miscellaneous beverages for my blood type.

Athletic Endurance and Performance

According to physiologist and longtime coffee researcher Terry Graham, PhD, of the University of Guelph in Canada:

"What caffeine likely does is stimulate the brain and nervous system to do things differently... That may include signaling you to ignore fatigue or recruit extra units of muscle for intense athletic performance. Caffeine may even have a direct effect on muscles themselves, causing them to produce a stronger contraction.

But what's amazing about it is that unlike some performance-enhancing manipulation some athletes do that are specific for strength or sprinting or endurance, studies show that caffeine positively enhances all of these things."

According to the Iowa State University Food and Nutrition website:

"Well-controlled laboratory studies involving running or cycling after taking placebo or 3-13 mg caffeine/kg body weight 1 hour before exercise have shown that caffeine improves endurance by prolonging time to exhaustion...

Even small doses (the equivalent of one small cup of coffee) can enhance performance."

Antioxidant Par Excellence

Researchers have found that a typical serving of coffee contains more antioxidants than typical servings of grape juice, blueberries, raspberries and oranges. For many people, it's the #1 source of antioxidants in their diet.

Numerous studies (some 19,000 in recent decades according to WebMD) have revealed that coffee consumption is beneficial for a wide range of conditions. In many cases, the more consumed, the better.

For instance, in one report combining statistical data from many studies, researchers found that people who drank four to six cups a day had a 28% reduced risk of diabetes compared with people who drank two cups or fewer. Those who drank more than six cups had a 35% risk reduction.

Many other studies have shown beneficial effects with such conditions as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, asthma, colon cancer, anxiety, headaches, kidney stones, gallstones...

Cocktails Anyone?

The study that really got my attention, though, since I don't suffer from any of the previously mentioned conditions, was the one conducted by Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif., analyzing data from 125,580 individuals.

The results of the study showed that for each cup they drank per day, participants were 22% less likely to develop alcoholic cirrhosis.

For each cup!!

And I drink 2 - 3 POTS a day! Yeah baby.

Disclaimer

The statements on this website have not been evaluated by the US Food and Drug Administration. The products referred to on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition or prescribe any treatment.