Personal Health | The Science of Coffee

montage of coffee images The average American adult consumes 3.1 cups of coffee per day. The most common coffee question may be “Cream or sugar?” But there’s more to it than that. From its effects on the environment to its effects on us, there’s conflicting information percolating everywhere. So, is coffee good? Or is it bad? And how do we filter all that information? It’s worth gaining a little more understanding about the science behind coffee to make better choices and take care of your family’s health.

A Rutgers University study apparently showed that a cup of Joe could help stave off skin damage from the sun. “Caffeine, Exercise May Ward Off Skin Cancer,” screamed a headline from Reuters. But a well-publicized study a few months earlier showed that coffee triggers high blood pressure in response to stress. Coffee is one of the usual suspects researchers haul in for questioning. But the trouble is no one can seem to prove whether it is indeed good or bad for you.

So how are we to know if coffee is safe or potentially deadly? Most researchers now agree that coffee is basically healthy, but that it suffers from a combination of bad press and scientific misunderstanding. In terms of science, one of the most sensational examples was a landmark study in 1981 of pancreatic cancer in the New England Journal of Medicine that found coffee “might account for a substantial proportion of the cases in the United States.” But five years later, the authors retracted their findings on the grounds that they had not factored in the other unhealthy behaviors of their test subjects, like smoking. Subsequent studies have even pointed to a possible decrease in pancreatic cancers among coffee drinkers—but of course the retraction to the story did not make near the headlines as the original, flawed study.

On the plus side, recent studies have linked coffee drinking to a decrease in Parkinson’s disease and type 2 diabetes.

However, these studies note that it would be premature to recommend drinking coffee as a way to prevent disease as the complex interactions are still not fully understood. Coffee is indeed complex, containing roughly 1000 different chemicals. In addition to caffeine, coffee contains other bioactive compounds. For example, coffee is rich in chlorogenic acid, which is known as an antioxidant and may slow the release of glucose into the bloodstream.

A cup of coffee may have 100 mg of caffeine; a can of soda only 20-50 mg. Research shows that 200 to 300 mg of caffeine – 2 or 3 cups of coffee – per day is reasonable and may even make you more alert. But more than that can give you a headache or tremors (those “coffee jitters”). Why?

“Coffee blocks the actions of one of the neuromodulators, adenosine, in the brain that triggers sleep,” explains Cynthia Kuhn, a professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University.

But that’s only half the equation. The caffeine also exaggerates brain activity and makes us feel stimulated. “Caffeine increases the release of adrenalin, the hormone responsible for the ‘fight-flight’ response we feel when stressed or anxious,” says Jim Lane, a professor of medical psychology at Duke University. That’s why some people drink so much of it.

But here’s the catch. “Your brain does adapt to caffeine,” Kuhn notes. So when you don’t get your "regular" amount of coffee, your brain has to adjust. “What most people experience is a headache and a feeling of sleepiness – the opposite of what caffeine does.”

So what’s the verdict? The old advice of “everything in moderation” seems to be the order of the day.

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Orange County native Margot Carmichael Lester also writes for the Los Angeles Business Journal, Monster.com and Go magazine.

Made in the Shade

Coffee is grown in more than 50 countries in a band around the equator and provides a living for more than 20 million farmers. After crude oil, coffee is the second most valuable globally-traded commodity. With strong demand and relatively low prices, coffee production can put a squeeze both on the environment and the income of small farmers.

“Coffee is traditionally planted in between the larger trees of some of the most beautiful forests in the world,” says Peter Giuliano, director of coffee and co-owner of Durham’s Counter Culture Coffee. “Coffee in this environment needs very little in terms of inputs, and so these organic, shaded, forested farms are some of the best examples of environmentally-sensitive agriculture there are.”

But in the rush to meet market demand, growers are turning to faster, easier-growing varieties. “These new hybrids can be grown in full sunlight, and so cheap, low quality coffee is now grown in places cleared of forest,” Guiliano laments.

“Instead of clearing for coffee in a way that destroys bird and other wildlife habitat, shade-grown operations support an abundance of wildlife, keep the soils in better shape, and can multiply income by offering higher quality coffees and having ecotourism a part of the business plan,” says Chris Canfield, executive director/vice president of Audubon North Carolina. Buying shade-grown coffee that’s Fair Trade Certified™ means you’re getting it from a cooperative of small farmers who were paid a sustainable price for their crop. In some years, the trading price of coffee is actually less than the cost of production, creating challenges for small farmers in the developing world. Fair Trade prices can be 100 to 400 percent higher than trading prices – yet the impact on the cost of your cup of coffee is very small.

To learn more:

• The International Coffee Association represents the coffee industry

• The Linus Pauling Institute Micronutrient Information Center

• Fair Trade in the United States

coffee beans

Mocha is a port city on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Mocha is famous for being the major marketplace for coffee from the 15th century until the 17th century, and still sells beans prized for their chocolate flavor.