Hipsters, rejoice! Your beards might be going out of fashion, and the skinny jeans may be far more uncomfortable than you would ever admit, but the coffee? Well, it just might be doing you good. And for those already thinking ahead to a post-Christmas health kick, it is not necessary to strike your single-origin beans off the menu, unless you have a particular health condition that makes it advisable to do so.
In fact, says Professor Clare Collins of the Dieticians Association of Australia, "One of the first things that people give up when they go on a health kick is coffee, and that's a crazy thing to do, because there's evidence of health benefits.
http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/dr ... lq02j.htmlCollins has undertaken a systematic review of all the studies related to coffee and its health effects, and says there is good news for coffee drinkers: they have a lower risk of dying unexpectedly and developing type 2 diabetes than those who do not drink coffee, and are less likely to develop liver cancer.
So why does it always feel like coffee is something of a dietary no-no; that it's bad for us? One of the reasons may be that there's so much conflicting information about caffeine in general and coffee in particular, and as in all things, some studies are better than others.
It's what you add to it and how much which seems the one thing all can agree on. It's the studies you have to take with a grain of salt, after all it is easy to find those that say it's all bad for you and another that says the opposite. So many studies, and they wonder why consumers are confused.
Conscience keeps more people awake than coffee.