Drinking Coffee All the Time

Once in a while you see a movie in which someone is all hyped up on coffee. They are agitated and grimacing, and then suddenly they grasp their chest and proceed to have a heart attack on screen. If you see this type of movie, it should seem grainy and perhaps a little off-color and uncontemporary. Because anyone who is aware of the evidence surrounding coffee and cardiovascular disease is also aware that coffee is not associated with an increased risk of heart attack. In fact, coffee is associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. So says a recent study published on June 18, 2010 in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association . In a study that included 37,514 subjects over a 13-year period, people who drank 6 or more cups of coffee a day reduced their risk of developing heart disease by 36%. Those who drank 2 to 4 cups per day had a 20% reduced risk. It's not clear exactly what the underlying mechanism is---bu

On a warm, late spring morning, full schedules beckoned---and I, like many, many others woke up to a pot of coffee. The coffee of the day was Seattle's Best Blend . According to the packaging, this blend is "uncommonly smooth." I enjoyed the first cup, but had to drink it quickly and head off to an event in my first grader's class. Afterwards, my friend, Lindsey, Founder of SEO-ME, and I came back vowing to uncover the "uncommon smoothness" of Seattle's Best Blend. My second cup was rich and had perfect depth--but admittedly it needed a little kick. Lindsey's take: "The flavor's definitely bright, but I would not say it's uncommonly smooth. It's definitely coffee, but I feel like there needs to be something happening, like nutmeg or cinnamon. The good part though is I don't feel like I have coffee breath. That being said, the day was beautiful and the morning was full of laughter. We were light and breezy--despite the fac

Never mind that coffee is good for you----it needs to taste good. In fact, that first morning cup should be mind-blowing. Not so with the Ground Rainforest Blend from The Organic Coffee Company . It’s dank and bitter without any subtle traces of chicory or nuts or chocolate or even mystery. Fortunately, it is utilitarian. Drink it and get the familiar morning jolt. But beyond that it’s all packaging and a nice story. The package is based on a rainforest meets mountains motif: blue sky, royal purple on one side with little symbols of fecundity, tall trees with deep underbrush, and cool breeze mountains in the backdrop. There is a bright orange sticker on the front that boasts, “Fairly traded (responsibly grown) Rainforest Blend (A perfectly rounded blend yielding a medium bodied, complex flavor)”. Though I am not a fan of this coffee, which is grown on farms in Central America, their ethics and sense of responsibility are laudable. In 1996, the Rogers family started the Sourc

Recently, a headline made its way around the global media network in various exclamatory iterations. Composite results from 13 trials undertaken at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine showed that coffee significantly improves performance especially among the nigh-shift crowd. The headlines were unequivocally upbeat: “Why Caffeine is the Perfect Addiction for a Worker Bee Society;” “Coffee Improves Productivity and Safety at Work;” Coffee Improves Work Efficiency;” “Coffee is Best Perk for Sleepy Workers;” and many, many more. News about coffee is big news---if only because coffee is a $60 billion-plus industry and the world's most widely consumed psyhoactive beverage worldwide. The scientific community continues to study coffee seriously. One major recent development is the devotion of an entire supplement of The Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. This supplement , "Therapeutic Opportunities for Caffeine in Alzheimer's Disease and Other Neurodegenerative