Sme Good News. (For some of us.)

[GURGLETROUSERS]

According to continuing tests at Stanford University, caffeine consumption in humans blocks chemicals which can trigger inflammatory effects on heart, kidneys, and brain. Therefore, on average, coffee/tea drinkers should live longer and healthier lives than non coffee/tea drinkers.

The study, which was published in Nature Medicine, did not specify the amount of coffee/tea consumption that would be of benefit, but previous studies have indicated that at least 3 or 4 cups a day had an anti inflammatory effect on the brain. (Clearly, a certain member of the forum never touches the stuff!)

The key 'bad' chemical targeted by caffeine is Interleukin-1-beta which tests on mice have shown to trigger a whole range of problems. Since I've practically lived on drinking nothing but milk, tea, and coffee exclusively (save for a few occasions of visiting a lady friend who made a great sherry trifle - I used to ask for a second helping) I now need to recalculate my itinerary for life up to the previously imagined 99.5 years old, and adjust for living to 104.

Of course, this being American research, there will doubtless be counter claims to the contrary along the lines of, the only way to living longer will come from a surfeit of daily enemas, to cleanse the toxins. But, I suppose, it takes allsorts!

[KGB-NP]

Much depends on what you put in that coffee too.

Here is a great resource for all things nutrition.
http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/coffee/

Did you say milk? Are you a cow?
http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/milk/

I take all those studies with a grain of salt. There is so much misinformation regarding nutrition out there. Much of it has the same value as cigarette manufacturer's research.

[techno900]

What is obviously clear is that "settled science" is often fleeting at best. One never really knows what "the" correct answer is since it often changes. I will continue to drink milk and coffee and suffer the consequences whether good or bad.

[techno900]

Just found this and had to add it to the story.

http://www.seabreeze.com.au/img/photos/other/11249682.jpg

[J64TWB]

Or you could drink bourbon and smoke your whole life like my grandmother and make it to 79? It all works just as good.

[jp5]

[wynsurfer]

Perhaps it was coffee that helped keep my great grandmother going for so long. She drank a full pot every day and spent the last 20 years of her life blind. They had little money and could not afford the operation [cataracts]. She liked listening to the radio and kept abreast with world news and was sharp as a tack.

She passed away at age 96. So maybe there is something to it!

[MalibuGuru]

None of this is good news for me. I don't drink coffee, tea, or alcohol. I'm doomed.

[KGB-NP]

My grandfather was a heavy drinker / alcoholic and smoker for a good part of his later years and lived to 93. Something to keep in mind is that generation never was exposed to the level of toxins, GMO, synthetics, processed foods and nutrient depleted foods as what has become the norm. Their food would have fallen more in what one would now label "organic", and even today's organics are quite often false in their claim.

The other factors are level of activity, sleep patterns and stress. These all have as much of an impact on health as diet and nutrition. Throughout history the nobles and rich were usually the unhealthiest of society due to obvious reasons. In this age we live as kings would have, and as a result we have become an unhealthy generation.

[KGB-NP]