food/drink

2 ANSWERS

1. Guest5908
   

   I have been following the accumulating evidence on coffee's effects on health. The most clear-cut findings about its benefits come from a 20-year study that followed some 84,000 women and 44,000 men. Published in the May 2, 2006, issue of Circulation, the study concluded that drinking coffee isn't harmful to cardiovascular health and may even be somewhat beneficial.
   
   An even more recent study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition in August, 2006 followed 676 healthy, older men from Finland, the Netherlands, and Italy for 10 years and measured their cognitive function. Those who drank coffee had lower rates of age-related cognitive decline than those who didn't, with maximum protection seen in men who drank three cups of coffee a day.
   
   But few other studies of coffee's effects have been so unambiguously positive. For example, both coffee and decaf can raise your blood pressure temporarily, but we still don't know whether this can lead to hypertension, a heart disease risk factor. Drinking three to six cups of decaf daily (but not regular coffee) can increase levels of blood fats that affect your LDL ("bad") cholesterol.
   
   Coffee may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, another heart disease risk factor. This finding emerged from a review of nine studies published in the July 6, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, but it conflicts with earlier evidence suggesting that coffee can reduce insulin sensitivity, which would increase the risk of diabetes. To confuse matters further, a study published in the February 2006 issue of Diabetes Care found that decaf lowers the risk of diabetes, suggesting that something other than caffeine may be responsible for any protection coffee affords.

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2. salim
   

   Coffee is not for everyone. In excessive amounts - meaning more than whatever an individual's body can tolerate - coffee can cause nervousness, jitters, and rapid heartbeat.
   
   Although studies investigating any relationship between higher cholesterol levels and coffee have yielded conflicting results, it is believed that in some people, drinking excessive amounts of coffee might cause elevated cholesterol levels (5).
   
   However, coffee drinkers who consume filtered coffee should not worry themselves with respect to cholesterol levels, because research indicates that it is the coffee oils which are mainly responsible for the rise in cholesterol in people who drink nonfiltered or boiled coffee.
   
   Most recent large studies show no significant adverse affects on most healthy people, although pregnant women, heart patients, and those at risk for osteoporosis may still be advised to limit or avoid coffee.

   Report (0) (0)  |   12 years, 9 month(s) ago