Cup of java comes with a health perk!

[Gifted Gourmet]

article here from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (registration req'd)

Coffee provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the American diet, according to a study released Sunday.. Antioxidants, which are thought to help battle cancer and provide other health benefits, are abundant in grains, tomatoes and many other fruits and vegetables.

They concluded that the average adult consumes 1,299 milligrams of antioxidants daily from coffee. The closest competitor was tea at 294 milligrams. Rounding out the top five sources were bananas, 76 milligrams; dry beans, 72 milligrams; and corn, 48 milligrams.

Your opinions? Will you drink more coffee based upon these new findings?

[phaelon56]

I cetainly won't drink less

There was a good NPR one hour special a few weeks ago about coffee and this aspect of coffee was discussed extensively. I think the show is archived in mp3 format at National Public Radio

Doesn't it seem that every couple of years a new study comes out and the results alternate between touting the health benefits of coffee or decrying its dangers?

I can't drink red wine (or any other kind of wine for that matter) so I just keep drinking coffee and espresso as my health beverage.

[Apicio]

I started drinking coffee when I was in grade four to alleviate the symptoms of my astma attacks. Ten or fifteen years ago my youthful observation was confirmed by a scientific study. My astma disappeared when I hit twenty one but I continued my two cups a day. With this, I won’t mind having another cup after dinner. Thanks for the good news.

[phaelon56]

Am I correct in recalling that they have now disproven the supposed link between caffeinated coffee (or perhaps caffeine in general) and osteoporosis?

My poor dad has been relegated to crappy decaf for years and has to either use coffee "bags" or go out to get "real coffee" because my mom banned all but decafe from the house.

Granted... they drink Folger's and the regular is just about as bad as the decaf but at age 83 a little caffeine shoudl be fun and he's less and less able to get out. I coudl probably sway my mom back into using regualr coffee again if I can reference valid scientific studies (but she'll still buy Folger's despite the fact that I can get her high quality fresh-roasted decafe or regular specialty coffee the day it's roasted!).