Coffee is health food: Myth or fact?
The Egyptians have a saying that where there is the smell of coffee Angels are hovering around. I guess Angels like the smell of coffee. Who doesn’t? Here on the terrestrial world, us Humans seem to have a unquenchable thirst for the bitter black liquid. When did this desire start? Legend has it that coffee’s unique energetic qualities were first recognized by the Sufis in Yemen around the 15th Century. Sufis would spend long nights in their Zowiyyas to praise God in order to draw closer to him. A Zowiyya is a Sufi Center where its spiritual leader “ the Sufi Shaykh” resides and to which his adherents come to gather. As these gathering were in remembrance of God, they must have looked upon the coffee as a tool to keep up their energy levels during the nights of prayer. From Yemen, the coffee traveled with Shaykh Al Shadili up to Cairo, Egypt and onto the world. The rest is history.
In our present world, Coffee drinking is part of a morning ritual that cuts across all segments of population, ethnicity, class, and taste. Everyday, workers of all stripes rush into the Starbucks, Peets, 7/11, AMPM Gas Station stores. All buying that cup of Java. Coffee also has a derivative a financial instrument that follows its market price on the open marke . Yes, one can buy or sell or sell and buy a Coffee Futures Contract for speculation or for hedging.
Aside from all that, Coffee is also a health tonic. Here are some reasons why Coffee can be an important addition to your health cabinet.
1. Antioxidants
That morning Joe that your are consuming san milk is a number one source for antioxidants which are an essential tool to neutralize those ” Free Radicals” ( I love the term; It is so RAD. This information begs the question as to why one has to be neutralize a “free radical?”
Well, to go into detail requires me to go even deeper than the cellular level of the earthly body but right into the Atomic structure of the cells itself. Atli Arneson, Phd. of Healthline.com does a great job explaining the process. Suffice to say that when a cell at the atomic level is damaged and loses an electron, that cell becomes a free radical. The benefit of the antioxidant is that it steps into the breach and “gives” the damaged cell an electron thus “effectively neutralizing the damage.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-08/acs-cin081905.php
- Makes you less stressed
Here the science is not so clear. There is evidence to suggest that some caffeine can reduce stress but too much will actually increase the body’s stress level. It has been said that it is the smell of coffee that reduces the stress level. I take it they do not mean the roasting of the coffee.
https://www.livescience.com/2614-whiff-coffee-wake.html
- Can be Beneficial for Alzheimers
According to the famous Dr. Chopra in his 2010 book ‘ Live Better, Live Longer ( Co-Authored by Dr. Alan Lotvin,) ” recent studies indicate that rather than being dangerous (for one’s health) coffee may also offer substantial benefits, including protections against heart disease, type 2 diabetes, Cirrhosis of the liver, Parkinson disease and colon cancer.” Oh yes, it can also save the world.
Seriously, studies focused on the link between coffee and its relation to the health of the human body seem to indicate that the cup of coffee that one drinks could be doing one a whole lot of good. However, like all things drinking coffee is only good if drunk in moderation and its drinking can increase stress.