Your Health and your coffee.

  Coffee is said to be the world’s most popular drink after water. So how much is too much?  Isn’t coffee linked to pancreatic and kidney cancer, and doesn’t it make your blood pressure go off the scale.

  Well coffee has made an image comeback.  Now that coffee has made it on to Santa's nice list. Some of the latest study's say there is strong evidence that drinking three to five cups a day (or up to 400mg/d caffeine) does no harm at all and that research consistently shows that coffee reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.  Coffee may even help protect you from Parkinson’s disease.  High-caffeine drinks on the other hand are not the same as coffee and should be avoided by adolescents and consumed in moderation by adults. These drinks have huge amounts of caffeine. This can lead to insomnia, jitteriness and palpitations. But the caffeine in few cups of  coffee doesn’t seem to do any harm.

  It’s the black or ordinary white coffee that is linked to health benefits, the creamy, sugary versions from coffee shops, are well not as healthy. There are over 1,000 chemicals in coffee, some of which have credible anti-cancer effects – caffeic acid can inhibit cell pathways involved in tumour growth, and cafestol stimulates antioxidants in the cells to defend themselves against cancer development.   

  However, not everyone should have five or more cups of coffee a day – pregnant women are advised to stick to two. No one is suggesting that drinking more coffee will in fact protect us from cancer or Parkinson’s disease but it could help. Coffee is a complex collection of chemicals and the health benefits are still unclear. A study found a reduction in heart disease with three to five cups a day, but no such impact from the decaffeinated variety. But it is, at least, now reasonable to stop feeling guilty for drinking as much coffee as we want to.