Buy a jar of coffee and get healthy! (Coffee in general)

Member Name: janharper

Product:	Coffee in general
Date:	08/09/01 (180 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: benefits for lots of people

Disadvantages: keeps you awake (unless you are a night worker)

Coffee beans were first grown in Ethiopia. It's thought that native people used these beans as food long before they ever though about making them into a drink. It isn't know exactly when coffee drinking started but there's evidence of them being grown in a monastery gardens in the Yemen over 1000 years ago.

Venetian traders brought coffee to Europe in about 1615 and in 1645 the first coffee house was opened.

Lloyds of London, the biggest insurance market in the world, started life as coffee house in London in 1688.

Coffee is now one of the most valuable commodities in the world (second to oil as a means of exchange between countries).

At different times in different countries coffee as been hailed a 'cure all', or a 'devil's brew'. The 'devil's brew' cliam was made by various churches when coffee houses became popular as meeting places. In recent years research has shown that coffee consumed in moderation is not a risk to our health and may even be beneficial.


Coffee and Asthma.
++++++++++++++++++

Studies in USA and Italy showed that three or more cups of strong coffee a day appeared to reduce the number of asthna attacks suffered by patients.

6 or more cups improved lung ventilation.

However, the same studies concluded that there was a danger in asthmatics of over stimulation if too much coffee was consumed.


Antioxidants.
+++++++++++++

Coffee is very complex chemically. As it is a plant it contained flavinoids which are antioxidants. It was also discovered that the level of these antioxidants increases when the beans are roasted.

Antioxidants are needed by the human body to repair cell damage caused by free radical (combinations of oxygen and other chemicals which attack cells.)

The benefit here is protection agains cancer and heart desease.

Caffeine.
+++++++++

Coffee incr
ease the speed of information processing by up to 10%. A cup of coffee after lunch (ordinary, fairly strong) is proven to counteract the normal after lunch dip in concentration and alertness.
A couple of cups of coffee was shown in tests improve alertness during night shifts.

There has also been some success in tests to show that coffee can lift the general tired feeling suffered when you have a bad cold!

Coffee helps fight driver fatigue.

Kidney Stones.
+++++++++++++

Recent tests have shown that an increased intake of coffee correlated with a decrease in kidney stone occurence, whereas an increase in apple and grapefruit juice had the opposite effect.

Regular 8 ounce servings of coffee were calculated to decrease the risk in women by 10%. If decaffeinated coffee was taken then the decreased risk was 9%.

A similar 45% decrease in gallstones in men was indicated.


Further Research.
+++++++++++++++++

Research continues and there looks as though there could be some very exciting discoveries about this plant. Currently scientists are looking at coffee as:

+a treatment for atopic dermatitis,

+a booster for pain free walking for patients with chronic angina,

+an early warning of diabetic coma,

+a helper in the prevention of hypotension in the elderly.

+a source of potassium in the diet.



All this is quite exciting and as research continues more benefits of coffee will be discovered.

So, go and make yourself a coffee, it may save your life, or at least improve your health!

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