Coffee drinking has been a vital activity for millions of people around the globe. The use of coffee as a beverage dates back a few hundred years in Africa where the coffee tree is indigenous to. Of all the coffee plant species, only Arabica, which grows wild in Ethiopia, produces high quality coffee.
Early African tribes mixed crushed coffee beans with animal fat and ate them because these were believed to give them extra strength and endurance. In Yemen, before 1000 AD, an herbal concoction was made by boiling the husks in water. It was only in the 15th century when the practice of grinding roasted coffee beans into fine powder and boiling it in water was started. This method still exists up to this day and is called the Middle Eastern or Turkish coffee.
The pleasures of drinking roasted coffee were discovered with the proliferation of coffee houses where coffee drinking was associated with religious practices. Growing coffee on the commercial scale started when coffee was transported from Ethiopia to Yemen. For many years, Yemen monopolized coffee export and shipped coffee via the Red Sea port of Al Mukah. Europeans learned to enjoy this new exotic drink after it was introduced by the Venetians in the 1600’s and called it Mocha.
Europeans competed with the coffee trade with the Dutch smuggling coffee plants from India to the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra in the late 17th century. This gave rise to the first coffee blend Mocha-Java.
At present, the wide variety of coffee beans coming from the Middle East, India, Africa, and North and South America, and the diverse practices in grinding, roasting, and brewing have greatly influenced the role played by our senses in giving us the perceived pleasure we associate with drinking coffee. Our sensory judgments as to the taste, smell, and what we see contribute to the satisfaction that we feel with the drinking coffee experience.
It has been established that consumption of caffeine can enhance alertness, reduce fatigue, and improve memory and recognition. Therefore, drinking a cup of coffee is helpful in counteracting physical and mental sluggishness as well as sleepiness. Caffeine induces a positive effect by lifting our mood. This makes coffee a vital source of individual happiness and pleasurable activity.
Apart from giving us an increased sense of pleasure, raising our mood, and improving our concentration, coffee also enhances our capacity to cope with life and enjoy it, by promoting the well being of our immune system. Consequently, this makes us more ready for social interaction and simply enjoying the pleasure of conversations and each other’s company.
The human body is one amazing and complex machine that is equipped with a mechanism of repair and self maintenance. However, being constantly subjected to wear and tear conditions such as pollution and ultraviolet light radiation, we become at risk for premature aging.
Aging is a natural and progressive process affecting all parts of the body. The degenerative changes lead to a declining capability to respond to stress, increase in frailty, increased incidence of age-related diseases and consequently, death. Aging is the result of a process called oxidation. Oxidation gives rise to highly reactive substances called free radicals. These free radicals react with and cause the deterioration of molecules. However, free radicals are unable to recognize healthy body cells and foreign bodies. Aging results when free radicals start attacking healthy body cells.
Substances that counteract the damaging and harmful effects of free radicals are called antioxidants. These are contained in essential enzymes, vitamins, and minerals found in our food to help fight off free radicals. Some antioxidants are naturally occurring and plentiful in common vitamins such as Vitamin A (retinol), Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), Vitamin E (tocopherol), and selenium. These antioxidants are helpful in the prevention of the progress of chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, stroke, cataracts, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Many food choices in our diet include antioxidant vitamins such as fruits, meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables. According to a study conducted at the University of Scranton (Pa.), coffee is the number one source of antioxidants in the diet of Americans. Both the caffeinated and decaf versions of coffee have been surprisingly shown as the primary source of Americans with antioxidants and appear to provide similar levels of antioxidants. The potential benefits from these antioxidants, however, depend on how the body absorbs and utilizes them. This result has come in timely when coffee consumption has increased all across the US and the world, adding on to the list of healthful benefits of coffee.
Chlorogenic acid, one active component of coffee, neutralizes the harmful free radicals and hydroxyl radicals which can both lead to cell degeneration. In addition, chlorogenic acid helps in the regulation of metabolism. It acts by changing the way glucose is absorbed by the body, hence, boosting metabolism. In addition, chlorogenic acid in coffee bean is found out to be two times as effective in the absorption of oxygen free radicals as compared to that contained in green tea and grape seed extract.
In the past 20 years, we have heard of a lot of negative ideas and rumors about coffee and caffeine intake. However, more and more of these ideas turn out to be just rumors. New studies on the contents and potentials of coffee have given us a new perspective on this chemically-complex but tempting drink.
More than just the caffeine kick to keep us awake and alert, studies show that coffee is also associated with other potential health benefits such as increased protection against colon and liver cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and Type 2 (Non Insulin Dependent) diabetes.
In several studies, coffee consumption has been found out to reduce the risk of colon cancer. Coffee is believed to increase movement of food; hence, reducing the time of exposure to cancer-inducing substances in the colon. Apart from this, coffee is also believed to reduce the output of bile acids that play an active part in promoting cancer in the colon. In addition, coffee also contains caffeic, chlorogenic acid, cafestol, and kahweol. These are compounds with strong antioxidant properties and anticarcinogenic activity. Caffeine is also known to reduce the risk of liver cirrhosis, the starting point of liver cancer.
In a study on the effect of caffeine on memory, women aged 65 and above who drank three or more cups of coffee (or equal amounts of caffeine in tea) daily, significantly scored higher in memory tests compared to those women of the same age but drank one cup or less of tea or coffee daily. However, caffeine does not seem to prevent dementia but only slows down the process.
Additionally, some studies show that caffeine protects against depression and Parkinson’s disease. This is associated with the caffeine’s ability to inhibit the effect of adenosine receptors. On the other hand, caffeine increases dopamine, the hormone responsible for the “happy feeling”, in the brain; hence, easing depression.
In a research conducted by Italian scientists, coffee was found out to give protection against blepharospasm, a condition involving involuntary eye spasm where the affected individual blinks uncontrollably. This condition might lead to severe visual impairment. In severe cases, this may lead to functional blindness despite intact eyeballs as the patient cannot hinder closing his or her eyes. A daily consumption of one to two cups may delay onset age of blepharospasm and is believed to be due to the effect of caffeine on the adenosine receptors of the brain.
