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Coffee is a "Health Drink"
WoodenRobot writes "Not that it would stop an Italian or a techie from drinking the stuff, but Chiara Trombetti, of the Humanitas Gavazzeni institute of Bergamo has reported that coffee, especially espresso, is good for you and provides numerous health benefits. All the more reason to tuck into a cup o' Joe - but no more than 3 or 4 cups a day."
...does this mean I should start? ;) I've never liked the stuff, and I manage to live without caffeine for the most part. (I don't drink soda, either.)
Personally, I find that tea is the way to go, so I hope they have a study that shows it's healthy too.
libertarianswag.com
The article says, "It can relieve headaches." Isn't that just plain obvious. Especially considering that the most common headache relieved by coffee is in fact caused by caffeine withdrawl.
Besides that, this article is obviously lacking in supporting information. What did this "scientific" study involve? Was this simply a look at the components of coffee: antioxidants, tannin, etc? Or was it a double blind study that looked at the long term effects of 4 cups a day?
Are you Corn Fed?
I'm Italian, and I don't drink coffee. And I certainly don't appreciate a story that portrays us (or technies for that matter) as coffee-swillers.
It's really not good journalism to post material like that guys.
Keep in mind that an Italian saying coffee is good for you -- even with the disclaimer that she personally hates it -- only goes so far.
I like it too, and I consume loads here in Italy -- but she has a vested interest in saying that espresso is the best of all types to drink.
Why? Because you really have to try hard to find 'long coffee' or caffe' americano here. It's almost impossible. I remember a year ago watching a French girl flip her lid at some poor barista because he couldn't understand that she wanted the 'long coffee' instead of the syrupy stuff. And she was shouting at him in English, which was most amusing. She'd have had more success using French...
Also, no other nationality fetishises food to the extent the Italians do. I'll leave it there.
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Death will come, and will have your eyes
-- Pavese
If not, they can feel free to give me a call and I'll be glad to hold forth on my semi-informed views on all sorts of things.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
That's because Starbucks is the McDonald's of coffee, and you don't go to McDonald's for its fine cuisine! Go to your nearest independant place near a college campus for better coffee.
Chris
What is left out is the sentence stating that those same headaches were caused by caffine withdrawal.
Off to Dunkin Donuts for my medicine. Anybody want me to pick something up?
Paul Lenhart writes words!
It's a silly thing to argue about, but I have a lot of esteem for Starbucks. The quality of the espresso and coffee you get at a locally-owned place depends pretty heavily on things like how rigorously the baristas are trained, the quality and freshness of the beans, and so on. All these factors depend ultimately on a combination of how good a manager the owner is and how much he knows/cares about coffee (which is, btw, a far more subtle art than most people realize). Starbucks is in the business of coffee and has been for years and years. They know what they're doing. That doesn't necessarily mean that they are doing it well, because they could be doing a crappy job intentionally for business reasons, but my experience has been that Starbucks is consistently decent. It's certainly possible to get better coffee at a locally owned joint (When I was still in a college town, I always went to the locally owned places over the Starbucks, partially out of principle, but mostly because they were just as good), but it isn't absolutely going to happen. In fact, the worst "latte" I've ever had was at a locally owned place, probably because the lady running the machine had no freaking idea what she was doing.
Eh? Are you trying to say cigarettes are not a physical addiction? And cocaine is?
I think you're way out of whack here, son. Cocaine is much more psychological than physical (crack excepted, of course). Cigarettes are a real physical addiction. Why do you think people have "nic fits"?
Plus: coffee does indeed have a minor physical addictiveness (similar to cocaine). In fact cocaine and coffee have similar effects on the body and mind, although of course attenuated for coffee.
So to sum up: you crazy, boy.
Dr Trombetti says she hates the stuff herself - but points to a welter of scientific evidence to back her case.
Hmmm... a "welter" is a "chaotic, jumbled mess" according to webster. Personally I've always preferred my scientific evidence presented in an orderly fashion. Even more, I like double-blind random scientific studies, but they're not even hinted at in this article.
Coffee contains tannin and antioxidants, which are good for the heart and arteries, she says. It can relieve headaches. It is good for the liver - and can help prevent cirrhosis and gallstones. And the caffeine in coffee can reduce the risk of asthma attacks - and help improve circulation within the heart.
I'm sorry to break it to "doctor" Trombetti but these are claims, not evidence. See above comment regarding the absence of scientific studies.
There is no denying that coffee is not for everyone. If you drink too much it can increase nervousness, and cause rapid heartbeat and trembling hands.
Ah, here's the interjected token fact to try to induce readers into a feeling that facts are being recited throughout. Sorry, no sale.
Fact: Coffee may be good for you, it may be bad for you. Fact: Scientifically speaking, this article does nothing to change the preponderance of evidence supporting the latter.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
An ex-girlfriend of mine once gave me a couple No-Doz type caffeine pills, because I needed to stay up all night to get some work done. I downed both, not realizing she'd meant me to take one at a time -- or, in her case, a half of one at a time. She said nothing, though gave me a funny look. I, still under the delusion that these things really didn't affect me all that much, proceeded to go home, make myself a pot of black coffee, and down it.
Big mistake.
By four in the morning, I was tweaking like the worst speed come-down you can imagine. My head was spinning. I couldn't see straight. My pulse was racing. Hot flashes. Cold sweats. My hands were shaking like a newborn's. I was shaking, scratching, and wiping at my face like a junkie. And worst of all: the nausea. Extreme nausea, coupled with the inability to vomit (I stuck my finger down my throat repeatedly to make it stop -- nothing doing), that lasted for the next fourteen hours, give or take. As soon as the nausea went away for a time, I'd do something like ... oh, I dunno ... drink a glass of water ... and here it all came again.
Add to this the fact that I had to fly to an all-day business meeting at the home office of a Fortune 500 company that morning, and you can imagine how bad my day sucked.
The whole experience made me gun-shy of caffeine for a long time; as soon as I started feeling those telltale effects that you normally don't even think about, I would freak out and have to start drinking water or something.
The moral: Coffee is good. I still luvs me a good Italian espresso. But remember -- it ain't a contest, fellas.
Breakfast served all day!