Coffee Maybe Not a Health Drink!

perbert writes "Canadian researchers have published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicating that excess coffee drinking (4+ cups a day) could lead to an increased risk of heart disease if you have the wrong gene. In light of other studies linking antioxidants in coffee to a reduction in heart disease, who is right? Or will they cancel out in a coffee death-match?"

Comments

Still waking up

[PornMaster]

I think I should wait until the quad venti skim latte kicks in before contemplating the coffee deathmatch.

Re:Still waking up

[TXFRATBoy]

results of the Death-Match: http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&wo rd1=coffee+increases+heart+disease&word2=coffee+re duces+heart+disease

Re:Still waking up

[masterzora]

I'm sorry, I don't speak Starbucks.

Well,

[deletedaccount]

I've started injecting it, so I'm not sure how this applies to me.

Re:Well,

[gEvil (beta)]

Sure as hell beats the coffee enema I give myself every morning...

To quote a much more sensible man than me ...

[SpooForBrains]

... namely one Commander Samuel Vimes: "Coffee is merely a way of stealing time that by rights should belong to your slightly older self".

The coffee dilemma; a management perspective

[dcavanaugh]

Health hazard or health drink? What to do? The answer is simple. Find studies that support your pre-determined point of view and use those to guide the decision. I like coffee very much. Caffeine addiction is not a problem so long as I can find at least one study that proves how healthy my coffee habit is.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming, "TCO analysis for the enterprise"

Re:The coffee dilemma; a management perspective

[wrfelts]

The corporate TCO Analysis goes something like this.

The peons like coffee. We need more productivity. Coffee is a stimulant. Give them more coffee to increase productivity. Oops, now they spend too much time around the coffee pot! Buy bad coffee, they are addicted anyway. Oh no, now their health is declining and our insurance bills are going up! No problem, just make them pay most of the premiums. They won't be able to afford to quit that way...

In other news

[Anonymous Coward]

Dr's say drinking four cups of semen a day while on Spring Break due to your being a total whore probably not good for your health either.

Will wonders never cease!

In other news...

[BecomingLumberg]

In other news, drinking/eating too much of $SUBSTANCE could lead to $HEALTH.PROBLEM.

What does this mean...

[dantheman82]

for the future of Java? For now, I'm drinking green tea and coding in C#.

My research results

[Hoi Polloi]

I am proposing that eating a Whoopie Pie a day is part of a healthy diet. Prove me wrong and give me a pie!

Re:Who Cares

[TripMaster Monkey]

It is by coffee alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the juice of the java bean that thoughts acquire speed.
The teeth acquire stains; the stains become a warning.
It is by coffee alone I set my mind in motion.

Apologies to Frank Herbert.

Personal record is four 10 cups pots

[The Ape With No Name]

In a 24 hour period. If you are not hallucinating by 11AM, it's time for another cup of coffee.

Studies have shown...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Studies have shown that research causes cancer in lab rats."

Totally offtopic about your signature

[fistfullast33l]

while ($beer != full) { $beer = new Beer(); chug($beer); }

So here's a small problem with your signature - you run the while loop until the beer is full...but you chug the beer inside the while loop. Which means that once your beer is full...you stop drinking. Of course, this is all dependent upon the fact that chug doesn't empty the glass, which is usually what happens when you chug...so basically I think you need to check the return of chug to make sure it didn't fail. Otherwise you might have problems.

Sorry for wasting your time.

Re:Totally offtopic about your signature

[Anonymous Coward]

Depending on the definition, it can also be argued that:

$beer = new Beer();

Grabs a new glass of beer in a loop which checks if the glass of beer has been filled. If that's the case I think you could better let the while loop check if the beer_drinker_ is already full.. :D

or something like:

beer = beer.Beer()
while(amount != 0):
        amount = beer.chug()

Re:Totally offtopic about your signature

[Placido]

I think his loop is never entered if the first glass is full... OR... he ends up with a hell of a lot of half-empty beer glasses. Personally, I was thinking more along the lines of:

$beer = new Beer();
while ($beer != empty) {
  chug($beer);
}

But actually what you want is:

while ($wallet != empty){
  $beer = new Beer(getDollar($wallet));
  while ($beer != empty) {
    chug($beer);
  }
}

With an optional:

if ($upright == true){
  attemptToPull();
}

I guess the moral of the story is to triple check your code before posting on /.

In re-reading this I'm coming to terms with the fact that maybe I need to GET A LIFE!

Re:Totally offtopic about your signature

[flooey]

In re-reading this I'm coming to terms with the fact that maybe I need to GET A LIFE!

Or a beer.

Re:Totally offtopic about your signature

[Edd]

This is where Perl's syntax can make the meaning of a statement clearer, consider how much easier it is to understand the semantics of:

drink(new Beer()) until $unconcious;

100 cups

[DaFallus]

Bender: "You seem a tad wound up, buddy. And your face is greasy. Real greasy. You've been up all night?"

Fry: "Of course I've been up all night! Not because of caffeine, it was insomnia. I couldn't stop thinking about coffee. I need a nap." *snores* "Coffee time!"

What size cup we talkin' bout here?

[mottrytell]

Is that 5oz, 8oz, 16oz, or the venti? I drink a lot....am I gonna die now?

hype

[noopy]

The hype-meter on my toolbar is pegged to the right. One questionaire, not even a clinical trial, about a substance with many, many compounds and they've got the results pegged to one allele that metabolises just one compound, caffiene, slowly. Let's put a "why do you loose sleep" on the slashdot poll. May as well conclude that slashdotters who loose sleep staying up all night do so because of cowboy neal. Well, so long as they have some odd genotype.

Two Apropos Quotes

[SeanDuggan]

"You know you're old when you remember when bacon, eggs, and sunshine were good for you."
"Studies show that research causes cancer in lab rats."

Quite honestly, all that these studies keep showing is that we still really don't understand how it all works and that, for now, you should just go ahead and eat what makes you feel healthy and good.

Coffee

[Himring]

I quit all other drugs in my life. The only thing I have left is coffee. They can take it when they pry it from my cold (well, warmed), dead fingers. I started drinking it in college and fell in love. It's the right way to start a morning. It doesn't offend with its smell like tobacco. It doesn't impair driving like alcohol. It is the primordial source of gathering in the break room. It is the basis for the original Terry Tate, Office Linebacker skit. It gives cops something to hold along with a donut. It provided cease fires during the Civil War as the south traded tobacco for coffee with the north. It is the foundation of eclectic, bohemian establishments wherein college kids make it, and other college kids drink it (coffee shops) and also birthed some of the first public access to the Internet outside of libraries. It is a primary staple product in many South American countries. It's something that (according to my systematics professor) the English don't make very well. It revs you up before anything you need revving up for. I use it before my workout too. It is best when freshly ground and french-pressed. It has created many wonderful cups that say things on them. It gives dentists something to clean during checkups. Wtf beat it up? Study says this/study says that.

Next: water -- a study shows too much of it can make your lungs stop producing needful oxygen....

Time for a bigger cup

[Helmholtz]

Since it's the number of cups that makes a difference, I guess I just need to switch to a bigger cup .....

Re:Paracelso once said...

[thannine]

Especially in the U.S.

Coffee?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since this is a north american study, is it safe to assume that they are talking about black coloured water poured while facing a photograph of coffee beans instead of the liquid Europeans call coffee?

Air

[seabreezemm]

Researchers announced today that breathing air is bad for you and hence suggest that all breathing stop in order to preserve your health... The sky is falling, the sky is falling. =)

Genes

[aeric67]

These damn genes. I should have gone with the +3 resistance to coffee-induced hypertension and taken the hit on flawed cholesterol transport... Reroll?

Re:In other news..

[Anonymous Coward]

Jolt(TM) Cola has seen an unprecedented recovery from its sales low during the Dotcom burble. In a round about way, Jolt's increasing girth of influence can be attributed to reminiscent consumers who fondly remember 'the good old days.' Systems Programmer Kent Jeeley, a self proclaimed caffeine junky, states, "I used be able to go for days on nothing but Jolt Cola and Twinkies. Coding straight through for 48 hours, then crashing for 18, man, that was the life!" Jack Adhams, Program Manager to Mr. Jeeley, states "He was doing so well, eating vegetables, drinking Vitamin Water, taking the stairs. Now he just sits there, slurping twinkies, chugging Jolt, and pounding at that keyboard. He's sprawling, too, we had to order him a new chair, but boy, is he pumping out the code! I'm a bit concerned he might only last another year or two, but we can always switch him to Bawls and squeak a few more months out of him."

HA! Take that, you caffeine-addicted wankers!

[wheany]

I really don't get geeks' caffeine worship. Some seem to think that it's somehow a good thing to not be able to wake up properly before drinking half a pot of coffee.

Oh, and all you self-righteous green tea drinking hippies are no better.

Re:HA! Take that, you caffeine-addicted wankers!

[Creepy]

I can think of a several good reasons to worship caffeine

1) it doesn't impair your ability to work, which isn't true for most other substances
2) it's often free at workplaces and available at schools (usually in soda form for the latter)
3) it's better than being SMITTEN by the CAFFEINE GOD, you self-righteous caffeine-free prick.

ok, 3 was really to poke fun at you ;)

Re:Ex Caffeine Junky

[Anonymous Coward]

Quitters...

Re:Dose

[0NoQuarter14]

If anyone ever tells you to do a lot of anything, run the other way.

But don't run too far.

Warning: This May Be Harmful To Your Health

[ackthpt]

"Coffee Maybe Not a Health Drink!" Gasp! :-)

From a life-long geek's perspective:

• I've sat for hours, for years in front of 25" colour TVs before they reduced radiation emissions.
• I've eaten countless bags of crisps flavoured with chemicals for visual and taste enhancements and dusted with MSG
• I've eaten countless pounds of fried foods
• I've made my share of /. typos (inadvertent and purposful)
• I've raced on a bicycle over 60 MPH downhill
• I've been hit with kilovolt shocks
• I attended dozens of indoors Hamfests, choked with the smog of hundreds of cigarettes, plus a few pipes and cigars.
• I've been run over by a car
• I've drunk a Mickey's Bigmouth
• I flew on a jet that bounced on the runway at Baltimore
• I fell out of a raft in the middle of Lost Paddle class V rapids in the Upper Gauley river of West Virginia
• I've collided with my brother's sled on an icy hill in Michigan, nearly fracturing my skull.
• I've been in 3 auto accidents
• I've lept off a 40 foot cliff into a flooded quarry
  • I'm not done yet.

    Regarding health, it will be bad for someone's if I don't get my coffee.

Re:Who Cares

[Scarblac]

I must drink coffee. It is the mind filler. It is the little shot that brings total caffeination. I will taste my coffee. I will allow it to pass through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the coffee has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. Then I must drink more coffee. It is the mind filler...

Caffeine... not a drug.

[Anonymous Coward]

Caffeine is not a drug. It is an essential nutrient, necessary for proper brain function in humans.

The STRESS of not knowing what to eat

[JohnnyGTO]

is going to kill us!!

Re:No.

[Hal_Porter]

A US cup is 236 ml

Or it's 48 US teaspoons

or half a US pint, or 41.6% of a uk pint

If the cup were full of tea made out of antimatter and it combined with a cup of normal matter it would produce a blast of about

10.6 megatons

So 22g of antimatter+22g of normal matter=1 megaton. This is a very useful thing to know

Re:best not to have any coffee

[kaniaro]

Maybe not an addiction, but definately bad for sotware development. According to the APA:

"Bill Gates has been quoted saying that his programmers can program for 72 hours straight," Stickgold says. "And I say-yeah, but their product is Windows."