Coffee without risk
He keeps awake, makes you happy and smells wonderful: coffee is good and is a pleasure. Whether mocha, espresso, cappuccino, latte, latte macchiato or ristretto - coffee is the favorite drink of the Germans at just under 160 liters per capita. Nevertheless, he has a miserable image. He is blamed for hypertension, stomach ulcers and osteoporosis.
Any sip a health killer? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that. New scientific studies certify the gentle mass drug healing properties. Thus, coffee protects against Parkinson's, prevents gallstones, increases the ability to concentrate and stimulates the heart, brain and nerves. This is not due to the "pampering aroma", the vitamins, trace elements or the other around 2,000 ingredients of the coffee. Only one substance is responsible for the medical effect: 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine or simply caffeine. The alkaloid looks like a snowflake's needles under the microscope, a cup of coffee (125 ml) contains between 60 and 100 milligrams of it.
Around 1500, when coffee came to Europe, he was seen as a kind of miracle medicine: In the morning, enjoyed on an empty stomach, he was considered a remedy for consumption, eye catarrh and dropsy. He should cure gout and scurvy, even pox. But not only beneficial effects were assumed. So London women claimed the new broody thing impoverished their husbands. Far away is the modern medicine of such myths.
But some effects have been confirmed. For example, once coffee was said to help people with lung disease, studies on asthma patients have shown that high levels of caffeine can actually improve lung function. A positive effect on the immune system has also been proven: In animal experiments, caffeine prevented certain immune cells from spilling out the inflammatory substance histamine, which plays a major role in allergies and asthma. However, caffeine is especially preventive. Two to four cups of coffee a day can be enough to reduce the risk of gallstones by 40 percent, and coffee drinkers are less likely to develop Parkinson's - caffeine is said to protect brain cells from degeneration.
But average coffee lovers grab probably for much simpler reasons to the cup: Coffee keeps reliable awake. And he does not make drunk. Above all, its stimulating effect worried the Europeans once. In the Orient coffee was long considered the "wine of Islam" and was drunk on every street corner. With him a magical power entered the European world, which until the seventeenth century knew only the anesthetic effect of wine and beer. It was only logical for the French that a substance that prevented people from falling asleep all night long was not a drink but a medicine. Coffee was only available in pharmacies. Today, coffee is "the most widely used mood-altering drug," says Roland Griffith, caffeine expert and professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "Most people see coffee as a beverage rather than a psychoactive drug."
Coffee strengthens long-term memory - coffee drinkers score better after two or three cups of learning tests. So does the drink make you smart? Goethe hated coffee. Kant, Rousseau and Voltaire loved him. Johannes Brahms could not find a note without mocha. Unfortunately, no one knows if coffee drinkers have the better ideas. This is certain that the hormonal control center in the female brain is particularly sensitive to the substance. More than 300 milligrams of caffeine (three to four cups) daily can reduce the cycle to 24 days or less. If women take the pill or are pregnant, caffeine stays longer in the body, in pregnant women more than five cups double the risk of miscarriage. In addition to its medicinal effects, coffee tickles the senses. He smells of security. Reminds of good days. On Sundays. Luscious meals. For successful parties or stimulating afternoons in the café. That's why it's over too quickly with every cup. What remains: brown corners of the mouth, his wet shiny skin in the filter, the taste on his lips ... Who is actually about to start the coffee machine again?
The results of some studies suggest that coffee is to blame for osteoporosis. Coffee drinkers consume more calcium and, according to the American Dietetic Association, need about 40 milligrams of calcium per cup of coffee. But those who pay attention to a balanced diet and do not overdo it with coffee consumption should not worry. The German Nutrition Society has nothing against two to five cups of coffee a day. Good, if it is still filter coffee: The filter fish out substances that would otherwise increase the very high coffee consumption the harmful cholesterol and thus increase the risk of arteriosclerosis.
Even if coffee is considered a mild drug and lighten the mood, he does not make dependent.But the body gets used to the caffeine kick. While coffee abstainers already feel small amounts, caffeine junkies can fall asleep with a cup of coffee as a bedtime sweet. Your organism has become accustomed and developed a tolerance. If caffeine stops, symptoms such as headache and dizziness can occur. In overdose, the body reacts with stress symptoms: Already 500 milligrams drive up the stress hormones, the blood pressure rises slightly. No one has been able to prove a connection between coffee and heart disease.
