Life Sciences Transfer Orientation

Kelsey Fruits

Life Sciences Transfer Orientation

Critical Writing- Rough Draft

Due: September 28, 2015

Is Coffee Good or Bad for You?

Introduction

Over 100 million people in the United States alone drink coffee (Statistics, 2015).Since coffee was first discovered, there have beenmany tests conducted and articles written over whether coffee should be considered good or bad for consumption.What exactly is coffee though? Coffee is brewed from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant. These beans grow on trees in over 70 countries with the main countries being Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Coffee is one of the most dominate beverages and traded agricultural commodity in the world (Statistics, 2015). This shows that coffee is a natural product in the environment around us, so how could something that is naturally produced be able to harm us or be good for us?

Objective/Question

There is not a direct answer as to if coffee is beneficial or harmful to us, but most scientists have discovered that there are more pros to drinking coffee than there are cons. In this paper, both the pros and the cons will be evaluated to help determine the true answer about coffee. In my opinion, I think that since coffee is naturally produced, plus people have been drinking it for centuries, that there must not be any serious harmful effects.

Results

Over 18,000 studies have focused on coffee use over the past few decades. Lately, more of the studies are showing that there are real health benefits for coffee drinkers. It is thought that coffee was discovered by Kaldi, an Ethiopian goat herder, but the Arabs were the group who first started coffeehouses back in the 1500 (LaMotte, 2015). LaMotte (2015) he describes how the headlines for coffee have changed from the 1500s to now. A few examples of these are: 1500s-Coffee leads to illegal sex, 1700s- Coffee helps you work longer, 1800’s- Coffee will make you go blind, 1900s- Coffee is as serious as a heart attack, 2007- Coffee decreases risk of liver cancer, and finally up to today’s which states that coffee is practically a health food (LaMotte, 2015). These headlines show how the opinion of coffee has changed since it was first discovered, but what is in coffee that makes it “practically a health food”?

An average cup of coffee can contain 90-100mg of caffeine. Inside the brain there is a hormone called Adenosine and caffeine blocks the inhibitory function of this hormone. In blocking Adenosine, this allows the brain to increase in activity which makes us feel more alert and less tired. Caffeine has shown to boost short- term brain function and boost metabolism. However, if a person drinks coffee every day these positive effects are likely to become less powerful because the body will build up a tolerance to it (Gunners, 2014). There are also a few negatives that come with drinking large amounts of caffeine each day. One of the negatives is caffeine can lead to being jittery, having anxiety, heart palpitations, and maybe even panic attacks (Gunners, 2014). Another negative is that caffeine is known to be highly addictive if it is consumed on a daily basis because either the person will become tolerant to the coffee, or will have to drink a larger amount of it to receive the desired effects. When people miss out on their daily dose of coffee they are known to suffer symptoms of withdrawal such as headaches, tiredness, brain fog, and irritability (Gunners, 2014). Becoming tolerant and having withdrawal symptoms are the trademark signs that the person has a physical addiction to coffee. Most people do not like the thought of being dependent on a caffeinated substance in to function normally.The only negative that can truly be found in coffee is the amount of caffeine a person will consume to get the boost they need to function throughout the day. Coffee contains more than just caffeine though; it also contains some essential nutrients such as Vitamins B2, B5, B1, B3, as well as Folate, Manganese, Potassium, Magnesium, and Phosphorus (Gunners, 2014).

With the antioxidants and other nutrients there are the many positives that have been known to come from coffee. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease are the two most common neurodegenerative diseases. It has been shown that coffee drinkers have up to 65% lower risk for Alzheimer’s and 32-60% for Parkinson’s disease with the more coffee they drink (Gunners, 2014). Another study has shown that 84% of people who drink four or more cups of coffee a day have a lower risk of developing a liver disease (Gunners, 2014). It has also shown that the people who drink coffee are less at risk for depression and suicide (Gunners, 2014). People who drink coffee are likely to live longer because they are at a lower risk for many common and deadly diseases. There was a study published in the New England Journal Medicine in 2012 in which Neal Freedman (Freedman et. al.,2012) observed the habits of 402,260 individuals between the ages of 50 to 71 years. They discovered that the best results were for the people who drank 4-5 cups per day, showing that men had 12% reduced risk and women had a 16% reduced risk of dying at an early age (Gunners, 2014).

Discussion/ Conclusion

In addition to coffee being healthy, there are ways that you can maximize the health benefits of drinking coffee. The most important way is to not add anything unhealthy to coffee, such as sugar and any artificial or chemical-laden creamer. Another main way is to make sure you use a paper filter to eliminate a substance calledcafestol, which is known to increase cholesterol levels (Gunners, 2014). Lastly, it is best to remember that the popular places, such as Starbucks, offer many coffee drink mixtures that contain high calories with very large amounts of sugar therefore, making coffee taste great, but definitely not healthy.

Is coffee good or bad for you? I think the answer to this question is an obvious yes to coffee being good for the body and mind. With each study that has been conducted, the results have shown that there are more positives than there are negatives to drinking coffee. Coffee will differ in effects depending on the individual and the amount of coffee they consume each day. Knowing this makes it hard overall to conclude that coffee will have the same health benefits that it has on other individuals, but it is shown that it has had positives within each person that consumes it daily. Therefore, with all the studies and information that has been collected for several centuries, I think that it can be concluded that coffee is good for you. In my opinion if having a few cups of coffee each day makes you happy and more attentive throughout the day, then please drink it. I don’t think a person should have to be physically dependent on coffee, but it is not the worse substance one could be addicted to. The only negative to coffee is the amount of caffeine; but, the health benefits outweigh the negative therefore making coffee good for you.

Literature Cited

"Coffee Drinking Statistics." Statistic Brain RSS. Web. 24 Sept. 2015. <

Gunners, Kris. "Coffee: Good or Bad?" RSS 20. 26 July 2014. Web. 24 Sept. 2015. <

"Health Reasons to Drink Coffee (and Cons to Consider)." - EatingWell. Web. 24 Sept. 2015. <

LaMotte, Sandee. "Health Effects of Coffee: Where Do We Stand? - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 14 Aug. 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015. <