Coffee is really good for you in most cases. Drinking coffee can help ward off type 2 diabetes and may even help prevent certain cancers, according to panelists discussing the benefits — and risks — of the beverage at a scientific meeting.
Dr. Rob van Dam, Harvard School of Public Health, has conducted many studies on coffee consumption and diabetes. He said coffee has a negative health image but the studies prove otherwise. He nevertheless said that they are not promoting coffee as the new health food or asking people who don’t like coffee to drink it for their health.
Van Dam participated along with many others in a “controversy session” on coffee at the Experimental Biology 2007 meeting underway in Washington, D.C.
While Van Dam demonstrated the coffee and diabetes connection, Dr. Lenore Arab of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA presented results from nearly 400 studies and found the coffee helps reduce certain types of colon cancer, rectal, liver cancers. Coffee also helps reducing the amount of cholesterol, bile acid and natural sterol secretion in the colon, speeding up the passage of stool through colon.
However all was not rosy for coffee, it may increase the risk of leukemia and stomach cancer with a higher probability risk for leukemia.
Van Dam said that pregnant women and children should limit coffee consumption that may be vulnerable to the above risks.
Van Dam reported these findings in 2002 and he has been doing more clinical trials since then to study and find out clearly how coffee prevents diabetes and will report the finding later. They have done more than 20 studies on this subject. He thinks it is just not the caffeine content that helps prevent the diabetes but rather other compounds that is found in a coffee. I found this from the net;
Dr. Duke’s Phytochemical Database lists the following ingredients in an unroasted, green coffee seeds contain the following soluble compounds:
• 2,3,5-TRIMETHYLPHENOL
• 2-ETHYLPHENOL
• 2-METHOXY-4-ETHYLPHENOL
• 2,4-METHYLENEPHENOL
• DICAFFEOYL-QUINIC ACID
• 4-ETHYLPHENOL
• 4-METHOXY-4-VINYLPHENOL
• ACETALDEHYDE CAFFEINE
• CAFFEOL
• CAFFEOYL-3-QUINIC ACID
• CAFFETANNIC ACID
• CHLOROGENIC ACID
• CITRIC ACID
• DATURIC ACID
• GUAIACOL
• HYPOXANTHINE
• ISOCHLOROGENIC ACID
• PUTRESCINE
• SCOPOLETIN
• SPERMIDINE
• SPERMINE SUGARS
• TANNIC ACID
• TANNIN
• THEOBROMINE
• THEOPHYLLINE
• THIAMIN
• TRIGONELLINE
• XANTHINE
Even though it looks lot of chemicals, but they are naturally found in coffee unlike what we see in processed foods.
Among this list of chemicals van Dam thinks chlorogenic acid, an antioxidant may slow the absorption of glucose in the intestines and prevent diabetes in the process. They will verify it soon and report it.
That’s great news, so drink a few cups of coffee every day for these health benefits, but also use caution during pregnancy and avoid if possible for children, they can drink later. A little coffee everyday will help, but just don’t overdo it like any other food. If you want to add milk to coffee, my British friend said, add milk first and then add coffee otherwise it burns the milk molecules and gives a bad taste.
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