It is researched and said by many researchers that Coffee is a Complete Wonder Drug. As well as the many previously revealed accolades to the coffee we find that it is also helpful for preventing heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers, dementia, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, and hepatitis. OK, now it’s beginning to sound a little like a cure-all and even has that suspicious whiff of a snake oil remedy for all ills. http://www.elitehha.org/2012/10/coffee-the-original-wonder-drug/ But no, by reading carefully we see that Dr Stetka seems to present a reasonable case and back up his findings with research and reviews of his peers and uses true scientific principles for his work. Additionally he appears to have no financial interests in the coffee industry whatsoever – all qualities which make a good case for respecting his studies. So possibly Dr Stetka is not offering us bunk science after all and we can continue to feel confident that our beloved coffee is indeed miraculous.
A Little Time for Reflection After completing this list of increasingly outlandish claims of coffee health benefits we need to pause for a moment’s reflection and sober contemplation. We need to look more closely and examine the claims and see if they pass a more rigorous debunking process. Some guidelines for detecting any malarkey in the reporting of scientific studies in articles, on the internet, TV and in advertisements offers us some excellent advice. We should always be skeptical, particularly where money and health are involved. We need to look carefully at any experts, study participants, promoters or satisfied customers and see if they might stand to gain from their participation. Finally, we need to be conscious of any grandiose claims. Consequently, I leave it in your capable hands – to determine the validity of all the asserted benefits of coffee and having now been either fully convinced or otherwise about the consequences of consuming the wonder drink, there has been, however, a serious omission that can no longer be overlooked.
What exactly is meant by Coffee? At no stage in any of these amazing cases, has there been any clarification of exactly what is regarded as coffee or the slightest reference to its quality. Coffee is merely employed as the vehicle for caffeine delivery. Now this may be good enough for some but I can’t let it go with such appalling ambiguity. Where did I read about the origin of the beans? How do I know what type of grind was used? Surely we must know the method of brewing at the very least. For the true coffee lover this must be corrected at once, so that no misconceptions should arise. Therefore we need to add the proviso that “best” or better yet “world’s best” is understood before the term coffee whenever mentioned in the studies hitherto. Of course, this is the perfect segue and ideal opportunity for mounting my soapbox and zipping into my pet topic – good coffee. Oh happy days! The results for any of these studies proclaiming coffee benefits could be improved immeasurably by ensuring that the very basic and minimal principles of good coffee are utilized, thus, I would dare to say, enhancing the results many fold.
