Coffee good for health? Brew away!

My 21-year-old daughter, wearing an impish grin that suggested a good-natured teasing was on the way, informed me the other day that she’s developing a caffeine habit.

“I thought you might want to know I’ve become a coffee-drinker,” she said.

This was not good news for her loving father, of course, who has spent the last two decades trying to dissuade her from ingesting all manner of unhealthy substances. As a java junkie myself, who was introduced to the stimulating bitter brew in high school, I’ve long considered my coffee consumption as something of a guilty pleasure. Over the years I’ve read about studies that appeared to link coffee to various maladies, including pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer and heart disease.

But when I suggested protectively to my daughter that she try green tea instead, which has been touted lately as a more healthful alternative to coffee, she didn’t seem interested. Folger’s fiends are picky like that.

Now, according to a recent health article in USA Today, it looks as if I might have been wrong all this time about my much-maligned morning habit. Coffee, it turns out, may have some real health benefits after all.

“Coffee has gotten a bad rap,” said Peter Martin, a professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University who heads a research group that’s received grants from coffee producers. “In the past, people have been mostly interested in demonstrating how bad coffee was. Unfortunately, a lot of those negative findings stick with people over time.”

Not only have those earlier cancer links been refuted in subsequent studies, the article pointed out, but the newest studies show that coffee – although it can temporarily raise heart rate and blood pressure – probably doesn’t contribute to heart disease in most people, either.

USA Today also reported that large studies have suggested that people who drink coffee may have a significantly reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, which is a growing health concern in this country. And if that weren’t enough to perk up the spirits of coffee lovers everywhere, other research has indicated that the antioxidant-rich brew might also reduce the risks of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, suicide, liver damage in alcoholics and even gallstones.

A study of more than 8,000 men in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that those who drank the most coffee, more than three cups a day, were the least likely to get Parkinson’s. And four years ago, a study in the European Journal of Neurology showed that people who consumed more caffeine in midlife appeared to be less susceptible to Alzheimer’s later in life.

While all of this new science about the potential benefits of the bean is no doubt welcome news to coffee fans, researchers are still far from actually encouraging people to head to their nearest Starbucks for a fix. Coffee does, after all, create real sleeping problems and caffeine-induced jitters for lots of people.

Besides, who knows when another study will come along to disprove coffee’s purported health benefits and turn the stuff back into one of the world’s most popular poisons? Until then, however, I’ll be enjoying my morning pot of tasty French roast with a lot less guilt than before, especially if my daughter asks to join me in a cup.