Fifteen Benefits of Coffee

Coffee is one of the world’s most popular beverages. It tastes good, provides energy, and has many other benefits.

• It is a good source of antioxidants.
• It can help reduce risk of diabetes.
  
• Drinking two cups of coffee a day provides a 35 percent lower risk of ending up with liver cirrhosis. A 2017 study published in BMJ found it could be possible to see a 20 percent reduced risk by drinking one cup a day, 35 percent by drinking two, and 50 percent with five because of caffeine’s ability to inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells.
• It can help burn more calories. Because caffeine increases energy use whether you are at rest or not, the Mayo Clinic suggests it stimulates thermogenesis, which is just one of the ways you generate heat and energy from the food you digest.
  
• A 2017 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests drinking coffee might reduce your risk of dying from heart disease and stroke.
  
• A 2016 study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention found drinking it could help cut risk of colon cancer by 50 percent. Researchers say one or two cups for a 26 percent reduced risk or more than 2.5 for a 50 percent-reduced risk.
• A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests drinking it speeds up your heart rate because of how quickly it is absorbed into the blood stream and in turn increases metabolism.
• A 2007 study published in the International Journal of Dermatology, researchers found caffeine could be a potential hair growth stimulant for men with androgenetic alopecia, a common type of hair loss. In fact, the growth of the hair follicles that were treated with caffeine increased 46 percent and the life cycle of the hair was extended by 37 percent.
• Caffeine might suppress your appetite long enough to make you feel less hungry for a while, says the Mayo Clinic.
• A study published by the American Association for Cancer Research found drinking coffee can help reduce the risk of melanoma.
• A 2016 meta-analysis published in the journal Nutrition found drinking high levels of coffee was associated with a 27 percent reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s disease found those who drank as little as one or two cups every day were less likely to experience mild cognitive impairment than those who did not drink coffee.
• In astudy from the Radiological Society of North America, researchers found two cups of coffee were able to boost participants’ short-term memory skills, because of caffeine’s ability to have an effect on higher brain function.
• A 2013 study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that it can significantly help prevent retinal degeneration.
• Research has shown its ability to give workouts a boost and increase athletic performance, and that is why so many Olympians drink it. One report from the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism found the majority of the 20,686 Olympic athletes analyzed had caffeine in their urine.
• A 2003 study in the Journal of Pain found those with high caffeine consumption had significantly reduced muscle pain after working out, which could be explained by caffeine’s ability to decrease sensitivity to pain, opposed to those who drank a placebo.

Coffee Beans, Light vs. Dark Roast

Caffeine is extremely stable during the roasting process. A change in caffeine depends on how you measure your coffee.
There is an estimated ninety bean difference between a pound of dark and light roast coffee, with the dark roast higher. During the roasting process, a bean loses its mass. The density of the bean changes; beans that are roasted longer are less dense. That is why you have more beans by mass of dark roasts.

If you measure your coffee by scoops, light roasted coffee will have more caffeine, since the beans are denser than a darker roast. However, if you weigh your scoops, darker roasts will have more caffeine, because there is less mass. Depending on how ground coffee is measured, there is only a minimal variance in caffeine content with dark and light roasts. Unlike Marijuana,  people have died from caffeine overdose.

What's in a Name, Java Jacket

Your fancy coffee cup holder was originally named Java Jacket, and now it has been morphed into the modern-day names as a coffee sleeve, coffee cozy, coffee clutch, or a paper zarf. 

See my blog for another reference LINK         

Affogato

In Italian, the word affogato means 'drowned'. For those of you not in the know, affogato is a coffee-based treat usually consisting of a scoop of vanilla gelato or ice cream drowned in a shot of espresso. Sometimes there are even additions like Grand Marnier, Amaretto, or whipped cream. It is difficult to decide whether this is a drink or a desert. Either way, it is easy to put together and will make your guests happy.

Freeze ice cream in ice cube trays, then top your ice cream cubes with room temperature coffee, they will naturally float to the top. If you like, add a shot of liqueur, a dollop of whipped cream, berries, or some ground coffee beans on top.

Diet Drink, Coffee with Butter

Some people have only coffee for breakfast, thinking it can help them lose weight, because caffeine does suppress appetite. Butter makes plain coffee considerably thicker, which makes you feel more physically full.

You can take a tip from paleo dieters and add real butter to your cup of Joe. Adding butter, which is higher in fat than cream or whole milk, will slow down the digestive process and maximize the beneficial effects of caffeine. Drop two tablespoons of melted, unsalted butter into your coffee.


One product on the market is called Bulletproof Coffee. It combines coffee beans, butter, and a few teaspoons of coconut oil to combat hunger and help your body burn fat throughout the day. This beneficial fat is a key reason the drink has taken off among paleo dieters. Ingesting butter provides nutrients that frequent breakfast-skippers miss out on.

According to dietitian Tanya Zuckerbrot, butter's fat content is key to keeping your caffeine buzz, because fat slows down the digestion process, it takes longer for your body to absorb coffee's caffeine. Rather than running through the energy boost quickly, butter helps prolong coffee's effects.

The traditional coffee additives of cream and sugar can't match butter's meal-like effects. Real butter contains the best benefits. Spreads won't offer the same texture and are made of different ingredients.

Of course, adding butter to your coffee also affects the taste. Many Bulletproof drinkers love the creamy, smooth feel of the drink, and it is often compared to the taste of a latte.

Caffeine Facts

The Mayo Clinic says most healthy adults can safely consume up to 400 mg of caffeine each day.

Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant that makes us feel alert. It can also improve our mood and is associated with a reduced risk of depression. It can also increase our adrenaline level, which can leave us more irritable, anxious, and far more emotionally-charged. Caffeine has been shown to improve certain types of memory in some, but not all studies. Controlled amounts of caffeine can boost notable performance gains for athletes. Some studies also indicate caffeine is effective to increase long term memories. Although ingesting too much caffeine makes it difficult to focus on anything.

There is some evidence that caffeine, when combined with certain pain-relieving medications like acetaminophen, the main active ingredient in Tylenol, and aspirin, helps those medications take effect quicker, last longer, and increases their effects. Excedrin contains caffeine.

Here are a few common sources of caffeine:

Most 12-ounce cups of coffee contain 90 to 120 mg of caffeine,
One 12-ounce cup of Starbucks contains about 260 mg,
Dunkin Donuts has 215 mg,
One 2-ounce shot of 5 hour energy contains about 215 mg,
One 12-ounce cup of McDonald's coffee has about 109 mg,
One 8-ounce can of Red Bull contains 80 mg,
One cup of brewed black tea contains about 67 mg,
One shot of espresso contains about 71 mg, (a latte is espresso plus steamed milk - cappuccino is espresso plus milk and foam),
One 12-ounce can of diet Coke has 46 grams of caffeine,
One 12-ounce can of regular Coke has 34 grams of caffeine.

Coffee and Cirrhosis

According to new research published online Jan. 25, 2016 in the journal Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, drinking more coffee could lower the risk of alcohol-related cirrhosis.

While there are observational studies that have already been reported regarding the link between coffee and cirrhosis, the researchers wanted to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to establish the inverse relationship between the two.

They found that by adding two or more cups of coffee a day, a person can reduce the risk of developing liver cirrhosis by 44 percent. The inverse association continues as the number of cups increases. For every additional three cups, the risk was reduced 57 percent; and for every four cups added, the risk was further reduced to 65 percent.

"Cirrhosis is potentially fatal and there is no cure as such," said lead study author Dr. Oliver Kennedy of Southampton University in the U.K. "Therefore, it is significant that the risk of developing cirrhosis may be reduced by consumption of coffee, a cheap, ubiquitous, and well-tolerated beverage."

According to the National Institution of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, cirrhosis is a condition in which the liver, the body's largest internal organ, gradually gets worse and is unable to perform its normal functions, because of chronic damage.

There are some limitations to the study as it was not able to account for other risk factors of liver disease, such as obesity and diabetes. The study also did not mention whether the type of beans or brewing method is significant to the results.

According to one expert, while the findings of the study showed positive effects of drinking coffee on the risk of cirrhosis, it should not give people the false hope that coffee can lessen the seriousness or extent of the liver damage.
"Unfortunately, although coffee contains compounds that have antioxidant effects and anti-inflammatory properties, drinking a few cups of coffee a day cannot undo the systematic damage that is the result of being overweight or obese, sedentary, excessive alcohol consumption or drastically mitigate an unhealthy diet," said Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York.

Seven Super Brain Foods

Whether it is a new dance or a foreign language, the older you get the harder it is to learn new things. Some foods have been found to be beneficial to keeping the brain sharp. Alzheimer's researchers like to say what is good for your heart is good for your brain.

Blackberries can get the conversation flowing again. They provide potent antioxidants known as polyphenols that zap inflammation and encourage communication between neurons, improving our ability to soak up new information according to a Tufts University study.

A recent Finnish study of 1,400 longtime coffee drinkers reveals that people who sipped between three to five cups of coffee a day in their 40s and 50s reduced their odds of developing Alzheimer's disease by 65 percent compared with those who downed fewer than two cups a day. Researchers believe that coffee's caffeine and antioxidants are the keys to its protective affects.

Apples are a leading source of quercetin, an antioxidant plant chemical that keeps your mental juices flowing by protecting your brain cells. According to researchers at Cornell University, quercetin defends your brain cells from free radical attacks which can damage the outer lining of delicate neurons and eventually lead to cognitive decline. To get the most quercetin bang for your buck, eat apples with the skins on.

Chocolate can lower blood pressure and it can also keep your mind sharp. A Journal of Nutrition study found that eating as little as one-third of an ounce of chocolate a day (the size of about two Hersey's kisses) helps protect against age-related memory loss. They credit polyphenols in cocoa with increasing blood flow to the brain.

Cinnamon research from the University of California at Santa Barbara reveals that two compounds in cinnamon, proanthocyanidins and cinnamaldehyde may inactivate tau proteins that can cause brain cells to die.

Spinach is packed with nutrients that prevent dementia, such as folate, vitamin E, and vitamin K. Just one-half cup of cooked spinach packs a third of the folate and five times the amount of vitamin K you need in a day. A 2006 Neurology study revealed that eating three servings of leafy green, yellow, and cruciferous vegetables a day can delay cognitive decline by 40 percent. Of these three, leafy greens were found to be the most protective. Try spinach drizzled with a little olive oil. Its healthy fats boost absorption of fat-soluble vitamins E and K.

Scientists found the heart-healthy polyphenols in red wine and Concord grape juice can also give your brain a boost. When researchers at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine gave twelve older adults with declining memory a daily drink of Concord grape juice or a placebo drink for three months, they found that the volunteers who drank the grape juice significantly improved their spatial memory and verbal learning skills. Researchers believe that, just like blackberries, grape juice polyphenols improve communication between brain cells.

Travel Tip

If you travel, those little hotel room packets of coffee are perfect to use in your bag with dirty laundry and at home for room odors. Unwrap the foil covering and toss unused coffee packet in with your dirty laundry. When you get home your bag will be less stinky. Leave the coffee packet in your bag while storing it for your next trip.

Fifteen More Coffee Facts

Coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world (oil is the largest).

1. There are two types of oils in coffee, good oils and bad oils. The good oils are good for your body and your health, the bad oils may give you ulcers and stomach problems. To avoid the bad oils in coffee use paper filters to minimize the effects.
2. Mocha Java Coffee has no chocolate in the Mocha or Java bean. Mocha is the name of the port in Yemen, where all African coffee beans are traded and transported. Java is the name of an island in Indonesia where the Java bean originates. Both coffees are dark bean and provide a bold coffee, when you mix the two together you get Mocha Java coffee.
3. Coffee starts out as a yellow berry, ripens into a red berry, and is then harvested by hand. Through water soaking process the red berry is de-shelled and leaves the green coffee bean. This bean then dries in the sun for 3-5 days before bagging.
4. In Africa, coffee beans are soaked in water mixed with spices and served as candy to chew.
5. Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world and the US is the largest coffee consuming country in the world.
6. There are 65 countries in the world that grow coffee and they are all located along the equator.
7. Black coffee with no additives contains no calories.
8. There are two types of coffee plants, Arabica and Robusta.
9. Espresso Coffee has one third of the caffeine content of a cup of regular coffee.
10. James Mason invented the coffee percolator on December 26, 1865.
11. Instant coffee was invented in 1901 by a Japanese American chemist, Satori Kato. In 1906 English chemist, George Constant Washington claimed he invented instant coffee.
12. Melitta Bentz a housewife from Dresden, Germany, invented the first coffee filter in 1908.
13. It takes five years for a coffee tree to reach full maturity, coffee trees can live up to 100 years and the average yield from one tree equals about one pound of roasted coffee.
14. A regular 6oz cup of coffee contains about 150 milligrams of caffeine.
15. Robusta coffee beans have twice as much caffeine as Arabica beans, but are of less quality.

Taming Odor Tips

Leave bar soap in the package and rest it somewhere out of sight. Hide an extra bar near your kitchen garbage can. Soap also lasts longer when it is dried. Open the your new soap bars and place them in closets, under the bed, in your armoire, in clothes drawers, or any place else you want to smell fresh, but not overpowering. Since it does not pick up odors, you can use it to shower after it becomes a bit hard.

Cat litter is good for eliminating cat odors, but can also be used to reduce other odors. Use cat litter in closets to reduce odors or put some in a coffee filter and stick in smelly shoes. If you have cats, be careful, as they might use the litter for their own purpose.

Put a large bowl of vinegar in a smelly room, such as the kitchen to eliminate unwanted odors. Put out a large bowl when you leave for work and when you arrive home at the end of the day, you will be surprised how well it works. Vinegar also works for wood furniture. Mix a 50-50 solution with water and wipe down the wooden furniture with a damp (not wet) cloth of the mixture.

I put used dryer sheets in clothes drawers and the pantry. They work for months. You can also put them in shoes to make them fresh. It is a good way to get a second use. They also work well in gym bags and luggage.

Baking soda is great to unstink a clothes hamper. Sprinkle on top of clothes. When ready, toss clothes into washer as usual. The baking soda also helps clean the clothes during washing. In fact, baking soda can replace detergent for washing clothes. Baking soda is also good for carpet stains or furniture odor. Sprinkle on, wait a while, then vacuum. Do not leave on for too long, or it may tend to bleach the fabric.

Coffee is the favorite of airlines to unstink airplane restrooms. Leave a dish of fresh, ground, unused coffee on a table and within hours the room smells better. If you travel, those little room packets of coffee are perfect to use in your bag with dirty laundry and at home for room odors.

Caffeine

After as little as 10 minutes, the caffeine concentration in your blood reaches half the maximum concentration, which is enough to have an effect. The caffeine reaches maximum levels, making you most alert after 45 minutes. Depending on how fast or slow your body is able to break down the drug, you could feel the effects of caffeine for 3 to 5 hours.

Coffee contains hundreds of different compounds. These include many antioxidants that protect our bodies from damaging chemicals called free radicals. These molecules cause aging and are associated with illnesses such as cancer and heart disease. NIH studies show that coffee drinkers have a reduced risk of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, type 2 diabetes and many other diseases.

Perky Coffee

To perk up your morning cup of Joe, toss a dash of salt into the uncooked grounds to reduce bitterness. We are all aware of the health benefits of cinnamon; toss some cinnamon into the uncooked grounds to add a subtle flavor that is also good for you.

Coffee Facts

A coffee bush does not produce usable fruit for five to six years, but then can produce for thirty to forty years after that. Coffee was eaten long before it became a liquid refreshment. African tribes would mix the coffee berries with fat and create energy balls that they would eat once or twice a day, when they needed a boost of energy. Green coffee beans were ground up and mixed with fat, then made into small balls, which were eaten by travelers on long journeys. It was the first plant to be cultivated around the world.
 
The fruit, or cherry, is a reddish two-seeded berry. The two seeds are what we call coffee beans, but are actually seeds. The cherries and leaves also contain caffeine. In some countries, the berries are fermented into wine, but mostly they are used for fertilizer or cattle feed.

Coffee was the very first food to be freeze dried in 1938. Nestle invented the freeze dried coffee. It was a milestone that was unprecedented and set a new standard for how food could be packaged and sold.

Coffee is so popular and in such high demand that it is actually the second most traded commodity on earth, only behind oil.

Mocha is a city in Yemen and the island of Java in Indonesia are two places, which types of coffee are named.

Coffee and Tea Dehydration Myth

Caffeinated drinks may send you to the loo quite often, but liquid in the coffee or tea still counts toward your hydration goal, because it is mostly water.

Caffeinated beverages do not dehydrate you when consumed in moderation of about five cups or less per day. In fact, any fluids you ingest will help keep your cells saturated, including coffee, juice, tea, or soda.

Eight Coffee Facts

A coffee bean tree takes five years to mature.
It takes the yield of a complete coffee tree to make one pound of coffee.
There are fifty species of coffee, but only two, Arabica and Robusta are used for commercial coffee.
The first coffee house opened in Venice in 1683.
Starbucks uses about 2.3 billion paper cups each year.
Coffee is the second most traded commodity after oil.
Americans drink an average of 450 million cups of coffee per day.
The name java comes from the place, Java, Indonesia, which was the primary source of coffee in the nineteenth century.
One of my favorite old songs is Manhattan Transfer singing Java Jive LINK

Origin of the Coffee Break

Pan American Coffee Bureau's 1952 advertising campaign for making this widely acceptable.

According to Mark Pendergrast's book, Uncommon Grounds: the History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World, PACB's $2 million dollar annual advertising budget created this daily routine:

The bureau launched a radio, newspaper and magazine campaign with the theme, 'Give Yourself a Coffee-Break--And Get What Coffee Gives to You.'  The bureau gave a name and official sanction to a practice that had begun during the war in defense plants, when time off for coffee gave workers a needed moment of relaxation along with a caffeine jolt. 

'Within a very short space,' Charles Lindsay, the manager of the bureau, wrote in late 1952, 'the coffee-break had been so thoroughly publicized that the phrase had become a part of our language."

After the campaign, 80% of polled firms introduced coffee breaks.

How Not to Spill Coffee

Rouslan Krechetnikov is a mechanical engineer at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and he spends most of his time working on fluid dynamics, the flow of air on a plane’s wings, the stability of a rocket, and other weighty problems. None of that has brought him as much attention as his newest paper in the journal Physical Review E: “Walking with coffee: Why does it spill?”

Krechetnikov and a graduate student, Hans Mayer, decided to divert from weightier subjects last year after a scientific conference, where they had watched fellow researchers stumble to their tables, trying not to get coffee all over themselves and the floor.

“The project was certainly fun. We just wanted to satisfy our curiosity and, given the results, to share what we learned with the scientific community through peer-reviewed literature,” Krechetnikov wrote.

They set up a simple experiment, watching a person walk in a straight line, mug in hand. They had their test subject look at the coffee cup. They had their test subject look at the floor ahead. They shot video of it all, recording how the coffee oscillated and how long it took to spill.

The results. Don’t rush. You may think the coffee will spill less if you get it to the table more quickly, but the opposite is true. Slow down and the sloshing will too. Watch the cup, not the floor. You will spill less.

The abstract concludes: “The studied problem represents an example of the interplay between the complex motion of a cup, due to the biomechanics of a walking individual, and the low-viscosity-liquid dynamics in it.” Isn't science wonderful?

Caffeine Shots

This is a bit scary. Aeroshots are caffeine inhalers. They contain a quick-dissolving powder.

Take a puff and you get an instant burst of caffeine. Each cartridge contains 100mg of caffeine, or about as much as a large coffee. Each holds about 6 to 8 shots. They look like shotgun shells and the target audience is college students trying to stay up late to cram for exams, or to supplement drinking binges. It is legal, but not what you might want to see around your children.

Ten Uses for Coffee Grounds

Dry them out on a cookie sheet and then put them in a bowl in your refrigerator or freezer, or rub them on your hands to get rid of food prep smells.

Airplane attendants have used bags of unused coffee grounds in restrooms on planes to help neutralize odors. This also works in kitchen cabinets. Just place some grounds on a plate and stick in the cabinet.

Plants such as rosebushes, azaleas, rhododendrons, evergreen and camellias that prefer acidic soils will appreciate the leftovers from your morning cup. Also, grounds can add nutrients to your compost pile.

Sprinkle old grounds around places you don’t want ants, or on the ant piles themselves. The little buggers will move on or stay away. Used grounds are also said to repel snails and slugs.
By steeping grounds in hot water, you can make brown dye for fabric, paper and even Easter eggs.You can even apply steeped grounds liquid to furniture scratches with a Q-tip.
Because they are slightly abrasive, grounds can be used as a scouring agent for greasy and grimy stain-resistant objects.
To keep kitty from using the garden as her personal powder room, sprinkle grounds mixed with orange peels around your plants.
Before you clean out the fireplace, toss wet coffee grounds over the ashes to keep the ash dust under control.