Ciclisto Senior Member Joined: 26 Apr 2005 Posts: 242 Location: Connecticut Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Rancilio Silvia Grinder: Innova i2
Posted Mon Oct 3, 2011, 2:29pm Subject: Re: Espresso everyday
God, I hope not. Or almost everybody around here is in bad shape. Most of us drink considerably more than that. I have at least two double shots most mornings, and often have more coffee later in the day.
No. No. No. One latte is not much coffee. Keep in mind that your espresso, while strong, is small. It is concentrated (less water) but contains no more coffee material than a a normal sized cup of ordinary coffee.
And as the articles that the other respondent linked to point out, there is little evidence of any harmful effects from moderate coffee consumption, and some evidence of beneficial effects.
Posted Tue Oct 4, 2011, 8:08am Subject: Re: Espresso everyday
This is a forum dedicated entirely to coffee. Most people here drink substantial amounts of it :) It's not the "cyanide drinkers club"...coffee isn't poison, nor is it liquor (fermented semi-poison). It's just coffee. Coffee, which, like tea, has been around for over a millennium. The average poster on this forum has been consuming far more than that for a good many years. While too much of anything, even broccoli can become a bad thing, it's not really much worse than anything else. EXCEPT if you have preexisting issues with certain compounds in coffee. Kind of like having deathly peanut allergies and eating a bag of Reece's Pieces....
Some people have worse reaction to caffeine than others....though, like the cyanide drinkers club, the more of it you drink, the more immunity you build to it, but even for those people, there's always decaf which is no(t much) more maligned here than caff! :)
I tend to have about 5 or 6 shots a day in various forms (shots, americanos, cappuccinos, lattes, etc.) At my usual 17g dose or so, that's at most 102g of coffee beans, about 3.6oz of beans. Going by the SCAA's measurements of coffee and average recommendation of beans (plus how much people ACTUALLY put in), that's maybe ~5 mugs of coffee. How many people drink that much or more every day at the office? :)
Keep in mind that the "bad" effects of coffee are generally considered the caffeine (which is also in chocolate (cocoa nut/bean/seed), cola (nut/bean/seed), tea, and a variety of other common foods...it's a natural plant product), possibly asparigin (coffee is a green seed, asparagin is in most green plants, including all green vegetables and the vegetable from which its name is derived: asparagus) and other such plant compounds. A coffee "bean" is the seed pod of the fruit berries of one of two species of coffee plant. It's peeled from the fruit, dried (or washed, or whatever) then roasted until brown (it starts out green), then ground and brewed with heat and water (and pressure in the case of espresso.)
Any "chemicals" that get talked about involving coffee are the natural plant chemicals found in the seed. If coffee had no caffeine you'd never hear anyone talk about it at all. I'd feel a lot safer with 5 mugs of coffee or tea than 5 mugs of Pepsi.... :)
Besides, if coffee were THAT bad, Italy, Spain, Greece, etc. would be in a state of near-collapse......wait....strike that... :)
The answer is no. Actually you only seem to drink a wee bit of coffee per day. In my case, on some days make that a Caffè latte for breakfast, an Espresso macchiato during the morning, a Doppio after Lunch, another during the afternoon, and an Espresso after dinner.
Besides, the notion that coffee is bad for your health is out-dated.
The scientific state of affairs is this: Drinking two, three, four or even more cups of coffe a day has positive effects on numerous internal organs and body functions. There even seems to be a protective or preventative effect in some diseases. In in most cases, there is no reason to stop drinking coffee for medical considerations. However, in individual cases it's advisable to consult your doctor, especially during pregnancy.
This recommentation of the Deutsches Grünes Kreuz is based on up-to-date studies that show, for example, that in contrast to popular belief there seems to be no correlation between high blood pressure and coffee intake, that coffee contains protective antioxidants, and that, in contrast to decaf, it has no negative effect on blood sugar levels or LDL cholesterol. People who regularily drink coffee seem to have a reduced risk of developing renal cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, bowel cancer and bladder cancer. Scientists involved in an ongoing 22-year research by the Harvard School of Public Health state that "the overall balance of risks and benefits [of coffee consumption] are on the side of benefits". Other medical studies suggest that coffee consumption reduces the risk of being affected by Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type II, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout.
So, consumed responsively coffee might even be good for your health. And we're talking about several cups a day here.
*** "This drink of the Satan is so delicious that it would be a shame to leave it to the infidels." (Pope Clement VIII on coffee)
Besides, don't you have a shiny new CC1 to play with? I see you've been posting some questions on the CC1 threads. Go enjoy playing with your machine! :) It's a fine machine and is hours of fun on its own. The happiness of playing with new espresso toys should offset any "harm" caused by coffee consumption! :)
The harm our ridicule will do to you if you don't practice your barista skills well be far worse ;) And you DO have a good grinder, right? :)
AFAIK the research on decaf is still new, and the method of decaffeiniation plays a big role in that. I.E. the "organic solvents" used by the big roasters (P&G, etc.) tend to create that situation, but water decaffeination and the newer air decaffeination such as Redbird uses do not. But that's far from conclusive yet, the research is new and ongoing and no study, despite the self-important press reports, is worth changing to accommodate until the study goes on for years or even decades, IMO.
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