Coffee: The Revolutionary Drink for Pleasure and Health

By Roseane M. Santos

Save the coffee planet! How? Why? We live in a world with an estimated population of 6 billion people from which 0, 6 billion, an impressive 10% of the world's population, is dependent on the coffee agriculture and industry for their living. All over the world, more than 1.0 billion people drink coffee on a daily basis, being USA the major consumer, followed by Brazil. Coffee is second after oil in the worldwide business of natural products. The Coffee Paradox is far more important than the French Paradox as it involves USA, Japan, Italy and Brazil, among other countries by decreasing mortality due to depression/suicide, alcoholism/cirrhosis, cancer, diabetes/ cardiovascular diseases and childhood obesity. It is amazing that people still keep thinking that coffee can be detrimental to human health and that coffee is but caffeine. The authors studies for 20 years have provided evidences why and how the daily intake of coffee is good to health, provide you drink regularly an average of 250 Roasted Coffee Units (RCU) daily (#45 to #65, SCAA). Most Americans like their percolated, espresso, decaf and son on...But 99 % of people think that coffee is only caffeine while just a few have recently learned that coffee has also antioxidants. But coffee has many other compounds which can help preventing a great number of diseases. Caffeine experts keep obsessively thinking about caffeine and ignoring all about coffee. Coffee has hundreds of volatiles which cause pleasure as smell is vital to mankind. More than any other, it is the sense of smell which has the power to fix and recall memories. Coffee also carries health with its five major soluble bioactive compounds. Caffeine is a minor part of a handful of bioactive compounds found in properly roasted coffee such as: 1) the phenolics chlorogenic acids, 2) the lactones formed from the CGA after proper roasting; 3) caffeine which can vary 200% comparing Robusta and Arabica coffees; 4) the vitamin PP or niacin and 5) the minerals (potassium, iron, zinc, etc). Coffee has helped mankind evolution and the spread of wit, good mood and pleasure together with health. The Coffee Paradox is but one among the many Revolutions coffee is responsible in human history. Coffee is good for the brain and the ideas, which are the factors that lift civilization. They create the revolutions. You will learn all into this book, aimed only to coffee drinkers. Non coffee drinkers are strongly recommended to start drinking coffee correctly after reading this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 21, 2007
• ISBN: 9781469100487

Book preview

Copyright © 2007 by Roseane M. Santos, MSc, PhD & Darcy R. Lima, MD, PhD.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2007906008

ISBN:          Hardcover          978-1-4257-8150-7

         Softcover          978-1-4257-8139-2

         eBook          978-1-4691-0048-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 01/28/2015

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Contents

Foreword 1

Foreword 2

Foreword 3

Prologue

Presentation

Chronology of Coffee Revolutions (70 Steps)

I   Introduction

1. Save the Coffee Planet

2. A Cup of Coffee, Please!

3. A Cup of Pleasure, Please!

4. A Cup of Health, Please!

II   The Truth about Coffee (Not Caffeine)

1. Thanks, Dutch!

2. Coffee Is Not Only Caffeine

3. Coffee Has Many Bioactive Compounds

4. Attention to the Chlorogenic Acids

5. Coffee as a Functional Food

6. Caffeine

7. Epicathecin, a Vitamin?

8. Dependence and Addiction

9. Coffee Is Not Addicting

10. Regular Intake and Tolerance

11. Coffee at School Breakfast Project (CSBP)

12. The French Paradox

13. Coffee Paradox

III   Coffee and Healthy Properties

1. Prescribing at Coffeehouse

2. Caffeine, Caffeine… and Caffeine?

3. Mistakes and Confusions

4. No Water, Wine Please!

5. Coffee Is Natural!

6. Coffee Has Antioxidants Also

7. AO: Natural X Supplements

8. Antioxidants and AHA

9. Coffee and Cardiovascular Disorders

10. Trust Framingham Studies

11. Can Heart Love Coffee?

12. Caffeine and Your Heart

13. Coffee and Premature Heartbeats

14. Coffee May Be Good for the Heart

15. Depression and Coronary Heart Disease

16. Coffee, Colas and Hypertension

17. Coffee and Smoking

18. Why Smokers Like Coffee?

19. Is Coffee Good for Smokers?

20. Coffee and the Brain

21. Coffee and Sleep

22. If You Drive, Drink but Coffee!

23. Coffee and Sleeping Pills

24. Coffee and Attention

25. Caffeine against Enemies

26. Coffee and Memory

27. Sleep and Working Memory

28. Coffee and Alzheimer’s

29. Coffee and Alcoholism

30. Why People Drink?

31. Coffee and Drugs

32. Which Crop?

33. Coffee, Sadness, Suicide

34. Treat or Prevent?

35. Adenosine/Dopamine Connection

36. Coffee and the Brain Opioid System

37. Herbals for Depression

38. Coffee and Parkinson’s Disease

39. Coffee, Diabetes, and Obesity

40. Coffee and Cancer

41. Coffee, Sex, and AIDS

42. Aphrodisiacs: Do They Help?

43. Coffee and Sex

44. Plague, Coffeehouses, and STD

45. AIDS Epidemic

46. HIV and Its Treatment

47. Tea Flavonoids and HIV

48. Coffee, Liver, Gallstones

49. Coffee and Fiber

50. Coffee and Bones

IV   Coffee and History

1. Thanks, Ethiopia

2. Legends and Lures

3. Islam Takeover

4. Tea Parties, Coffee Stays

5. Coffee in the Bible

6. Arabs, Alkohol, and Coffee

7. Alchemy, Wit, and Coffee

8. Crusades and Coffee

9. Coffee Arrives in Italy

10. Christians Allowed to Drink Coffee

11. Coffee Goes to England

12. Women’s Criticism

13. The Outlawed Coffeehouses

14. Coffee in France

15. Coffee in Germany and Austria

16. Coffee in Switzerland

17. Coffee in Sweden

18. Coffee in USA

19. Caffeine and Coca

20. Caffeine and Pepsi(n)

21. Coffee Worldwide

22. Evolution of Man and Coffee

V   Coffee, You and Yours

1. Pregnant, Take a Coffee Break!

2. Thalidomide Disaster

3. No Coffee Disaster So Far

4. Nutrition in Pregnancy

5. Abortion, Low Birth Weight

6. Coffee and Breast-feeding

7. Athlete’s Health

8. Coffee and Athletes

9. Caffeine and Sports Activity

10. Why Coffee to Athletes?

11. Children’s Health

12. Coffee Regimen, Not Diet

13. Body and Mind

VI   Coffee: From Plant to Cup

1. From Stem Cell to Crop

2. Coffee Tree

3. Coffee Harvesting and Ripening

4. Coffee Processing

5. Coffee Roasting

6. Colombia

7. Kenya

8. Tanzania

9. Indonesia and Java

10. Hawaii and Kona Coffee

11. Yemen and Mocha

12. Guatemala

13. Costa Rica

14. Honduras

15. Mexico

16. Brazil: The land of sustainable and healthy coffee

17. Coffee Robusta

18. Vietnam

19. Wealth and Health to Everybody

20. Functional Beverages of Coffee

VII   No Coffee for Granted!

1. Pleasure X Health

2. Coffee X Consumers

3. Organics

4. What Is Special Coffee?

5. Sustainable Coffee Economy

6. Coffee Genome

7. Coffee for Pleasure

8. Coffee Aroma

9. Coffee Taste

10. Coffee Cupping

11. Coffee X Wine

12. No Coffee for Granted

13. Thermostable Caffeine

14. Roasting: The Secret

15. The Mysterious Lactones

16. New Partners

VIII   Guide to Pleasure

1. Coffee Making, Storing, Drinking

2. Coffee Flavor Guide

3. Coffee Brewing

4. How to Drink Coffee

5. Coffee Home and Coffeehouses

6. What Is Coffee in Excess?

7. Coffee Overdosage

8. Coffee in, Sadness Out

IX   A. Fifty Pleasant Coffee Recipes

1. Breakfast

2. Main Dishes

3. Desserts

4. Pastries

5. Specialties

6. Hot Drinks

7. Cold Drinks

B. Guide to Some of the Best Coffeehouses

X   Bibliography

To coffee drinkers worldwide . . .

Non coffee drinkers are kindly requested to start drinking coffee after reading this book.

Foreword

by Diego Pizano

As it is well known, the coffee industry has played an essential role in the economic growth, income distribution, employment generation, and public finances of more than 40 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Around the world, the income of more than 25 million farmers and their families, most of them smallholders, are dependent on this commodity. Coffee has been historically the second most important primary commodity in international trade after oil. As I mentioned in a conference organized by Lehigh University some years ago, the significance of this sector for the producing countries can be compared with the auto industry in Japan, the chemical industry in Germany, or the information and computer industry in the USA. Crisis in the coffee industry (as the one experienced between 1998 and 2002) have had serious repercussions for the country’s concerned; the social and economic well-being of millions of people are affected in a very negative way.

At the same time, coffee has been characterized as the substance that fuels the mind in the knowledge economy. In our planet, more than 1 billion people start their day by drinking a cup of coffee. That makes coffee the most popular drink at the world level after water. Human beings have been drinking coffee for more than one thousand years as it is explained clearly in this book. All sorts of theories and conjectures have been advanced on its possible effects on human health. However, only in the last ten to fifteen years rigorous scientific conclusions have been reached. These research findings have been published in highly specialized journals, and consequently, the great majority of coffee drinkers have not had the chance of examining them. One of the great merits of this book is that it makes all this important body of knowledge accessible to current and potential coffee drinkers. We should all be grateful with Dr. Santos and Dr. Lima for having spent so much time and energy in doing research on coffee and health and for preparing this work.

Coffee and economic development: what factors explain the coffee sector’s capacity to stimulate economic growth? In a small book I published in 2001, I explored this theme. Allow me a very brief summary. Coffee has acted as a leading sector in many countries because it has been labor intensive, it has created effective demand for industrial goods, and it has had forward and backward linkages with many sectors (finance, transportation, etc.). In addition, coffee was a pioneer in the integration of many developing countries into the international economy, and it provided an opportunity for the use of resources (land and labor) that would otherwise not be used. This effect was anticipated by Adam Smith when he put forward his vent for surplus theory.

Coffee and sustainability—the concept of sustainable development has been gaining ground in all sectors of the world economy. The international community has insisted that all sectors should be economically viable and sustainable in the social and environmental dimensions. The contribution of coffee growing and trading to sustainable development is in general positive and significant. In terms of the environment, coffee is an important contributor to carbon sequestration, and it helps in stabilizing soils. However, some farmers need to improve waste management and take more active steps in protecting biodiversity. In the social dimension, coffee provides millions of jobs and is a major factor in creating social capital and political stability. What is required is more investment in human capital (education and health) and more access to information technologies. In the economic dimension, coffee producers suffered a deep crisis recently, and they are now starting to recover gradually. Collaboration of all the stakeholders of the coffee value chain needs to be intensified in order to ensure that the quality of life of the farmers and workers and the intrinsic quality of the product and the quality of the environment improve.

Finally, let me tell you that a few years ago I helped to organize an international seminar on coffee and health. I read a good number of scientific papers in this fascinating area. I can know say that my knowledge has expanded by reading this book. I strongly recommended it to all readers. It will help them understand the evolution of a sector and the complexity of a beverage (more than nine hundred chemical compounds) that has played a very significant role in the international economy.

* Diego Pizano is former economic advisor to the President of Colombia. For many years he has acted as international and economic advisor of National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia and has represented his country at the International Coffee Organization (London). He is the author of several books and articles related to coffee, primary products and economic development.

Notes

1. Roberto Junguito and Diego Pizano, Continuity and Change in the Colombian Coffee Industry, in Colombia:AnOpeningEconomy? ed. C. M. Callahan and F. R. Gunter (Stamford, CT: JAI Press, 1999).

2. Bernard Rothfos, Kaffee—DerVerbrauch (Hamburg: Gordian Max Rieck GmbH, 1984).

3. Diego Pizano, ElCaféenlaEncrucijada (Bogotá, Colombia: Alfaomega, 2001).

4. H. L. Myint, The Classical Theory of International Trade and the Underdeveloped Countries, EconomicJournal (1958).

5. Ernesto Illy and Diego Pizano, eds., CoffeeandHealth:NewResearchFindings (London: Commodities Press, ICO, 2004).

Foreword

by Dr. Mario Maranhao

We live in a world with immense technology for the treatment of diseases, but the prevention of most diseases is declining according to modern evolution. Nowadays, it is important to change wrong patterns, both individual and collective, by adopting a healthy lifestyle as a major citizenship agenda for well-being. One out of every three executives dies of heart attack, cancer, or brain stroke between the ages of thirty-four and sixty-four, at the most productive working period of their lives. That means taking along all the intellectual capital that has been invested in career development through constant abilities improvement, massive technical training, and skills qualification at the company where they eventually work for expense. The main purpose of this kind of sponsorship would be keeping employees professionally update, but it also means serving its own competitive standards and eventually its leadership within a market. This is the conclusion of a recent international research led by the World Health Organization (WHO) in cooperation with the Earth Institute at Columbia University. The report shows a dramatic scenario: no developing countries, including Brazil, will have any top quality human resources capable of competing on the same level as rich nations if nothing can be done on a short-term basis to stop the vertiginous progression of the statistics that are drawing to death our precious national management elite who are now responsible for leading our present economy as well as future perspectives. This Business Magazine edition issued in June 2004 shows conclusive research in which twenty-five thousand executives in the country were profiled. That discloses a frightening picture on the emotional conditions of who makes decisions at these companies. No wonder they would have harmful disorders such as smoking related injuries; heart failure; unbalanced meals; high stress levels; carelessness, lack of attention, concentration, and memory; agitated sleeping; ulcers; collapses; high cholesterol levels; diabetes; and obesity—just to mention a few. Absolute zero in life quality! Now, at this moment of rupture with no parallel in mankind history, we launch Qualivitae Institute with the purpose of legitimating a major proposal for changing habits among all multiplying agents of the whole society and, in so doing, to achieve a healthy lifestyle. As my friend and colleague Dr. Dean Ornish (creator of the Lifestyle Concept) would say, Why should you Brazilians imitate the ‘American way of dying’? The old and wise popular quote our grandmas would tell us still continues more vivid than ever: Preventing is better than treating disease. Dr. Darcy Lima and his collaborator for more than twenty years, Dr. Roseane Santos work on the topic of coffee and health and are responsible for brand-new discoveries of the benefit of other bioactive compounds found in coffee, particularly the chlorogenic acids and the roasted dependant lactones that was responsible for the creation of different projects in Brazil and USA, such as the Coffee at Schools, Coffee and Heart, and the Institute for Coffee Studies (ICS, www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/coffee). According to the WHO and the World Bank, depression is currently the fourth leading cause of disability worldwide, and its incidence is increasing rapidly. It is projected that depression will be the second leading cause of death and/or morbidity by the year 2020. Cardiovascular disease, which is currently the leading cause of death and morbidity in the industrialized world, is projected to become the number one single cause of mortality by 2020. Thus, if only because both conditions are so common, there will be many patients with both diseases. Depressed mood is associated with nicotine dependence, and the association of smoking and depression has prompted the use of antidepressant medication in conjunction with nicotine replacement for smoking cessation. Because there is evidence that nicotine activates release of endogenous opioids, opioid antagonists have been evaluated for its effect on nicotine abstinence, and preliminary data shows that there is a significant decrease in craving and smoking.

In the United States, two-thirds of all adults use alcohol occasionally, and at least 15 percent of the users can be considered heavy drinkers. They develop tolerance, physical dependence, and chronic toxicity induced by alcohol. Medicines with opioid antagonist activity (e.g., naltrexone) were approved for the treatment of alcoholism by FDA, USA, in 1996; and early in the ’90s, Drs. Lima and Santos’s pioneer studies have shown that coffee has natural opioid antagonists (lactones) to fight alcoholism and even depression.

Most medical articles published up to the present concerning the effects of coffee consumption upon human health quotes only caffeine from coffee. No other compounds available in coffee and its possible effects upon human health are mentioned at all or only rarely. Most people think that coffee has only or mainly caffeine. But coffee has a great number of others substances besides caffeine, such as the chlorogenic acids, lactones, niacin, and minerals, not to mention the thousand of volatiles acting into the pleasant aroma and taste. In this book, the authors present authoritative information about coffee and health that will help you to not worry any longer and get the most healthful benefits from your coffee. They show that coffee is far safer and healthier than all artificial beverages available so far, not to mention the alcoholic ones. Daily and moderate intake of coffee can have an important role in the prevention of many diseases—from cardiovascular ones to cancer, alcoholism, depression, suicide, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes among adults—and also can help in preventing obesity among youth.

* Professor Mario F. de Camargo Maranhao, MD, is a Brazilian cardiologist from Curitiba, Parana; the first South American president of the World Heart Federation (WHF) headquartered in Geneva; consultant on Life Quality for the World Health Organization and UNESCO; and counselor member of the Blue Ribbon International Scientific Advisory Board for PepsiCo. He is the founder and president of Qualivitae Institute.

Foreword

by Nathan Herszkowicz

Executive Director, Brazilian Coffee Industry Association (ABIC)

The physician (MD), scientist (PhD), writer (twenty-five books), and professor Darcy R. Lima, after getting his PhD in 1982 at London University (St Bartholomew’s Hospital), began a research project on medicinal plants with the financial support of the Brazilian government, with his colleague Dr. Santos. Latin America has an immense biodiversity, not to mention the Brazilian rainforest, with its more than a hundred thousand different species of plants yet to be studied by modern science. After a couple of years, the two decided to study the most important crop in Brazil—coffee. Brazil was, is, and always will be the major coffee producer in the world. Now, it is the second largest consumer after the USA. Up to the ’80s, coffee was considered as having only caffeine by most doctors, scientists, and consumers ; and caffeine was recognized as a psychotropic and addicting drug. Since 1984, funded by the authors’ rights of the books they write regularly—as this one, Dr. Lima and Dr. Santos began studying other compounds found in coffee, rather than caffeine, such as the antioxidants chlorogenic acids/lactones, trigonelline/niacin, minerals, and the volatiles that cause the pleasant aroma and taste of coffee. After ten years of research and publication of papers and books about coffee and health, the authors raised enough evidence to confirm that coffee is not only caffeine and that its daily and moderate consumption can be good for human health at all ages. In 1994, Dr. Lima presented his ideas and research projects: (1) Coffee, Depression, Alcoholism; (2) Coffee at School Breakfast; and (3) Coffee Heart Study to the board of directors of the Brazilian Coffee Industry Association (ABIC) (www.abic.com.br) at Rio de Janeiro. At that time, coffee and health faced prejudice and barriers due to lack of knowledge and lack of studies to confirm the entire hypothesis regarding the prophylatic role of coffee against a number of diseases. With a scientifically orientated mind, together with a keen interest into human behavior and the history of science and of mankind and a sharp investigative brain—always motivated and moved by coffee, Dr. Lima and Dr. Santos began to understand why mankind has chosen coffee as its favorite beverage after water. They assumed that this was due to the fact that coffee was able to bring not only pleasure but also health. This convinced the ABIC not only to support them but also to start a wide promotional campaign about coffee and its healthy properties among consumers and also among doctors. In 1997, Dr. Lima was invited to present his data and ideas at the famous Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, which claims two Nobel Prizes in Medicine (Earl W. Sutherland Jr. in 1971 and Stanley Cohen in 1986); and then he wrote the project Coffee, Depression, and Alcoholism, which gave birth to the Institute for Coffee Studies (ICS) (www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/coffee) there. With the help of ABIC executives, it was possible to raise millions of dollars from the coffee sector of many different countries and companies (Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, National Coffee Association at USA, Starbucks, etc.) for research at the ICS. After that, Dr. Lima and Dr. Santos’s hypothesis began to be confirmed and recognized worldwide. The purpose of ABIC was to generate updated information to remove the prejudice against coffee all scientifically based, thus allowing coffee drinkers to enjoy not only the pleasure of coffee without guilt but also its healthy properties.

In recent years, we have seen an immense number of papers published by leading scientific centers from USA, Europe, and Asia about the positive effects of coffee upon human health, such as depression/suicide, alcoholism/cirrhosis, adult diabetes, Parkinson’s/Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer, to name a few. The topic on coffee and health turned out to be a motive for promotional campaigns in order to bring back the ancient habit of drinking coffee, which has lasted thousands of years. Dr. Lima and Dr. Santos have become participants of almost every event on coffee in Latin America and in many countries, such as USA, Canada, and England. Currently, the Coffee Heart Study is being implemented at the Heart Institute University in Sao Paulo (http://www.incor.usp.br/sites/incor2013/), funded by the Brazilian government, and is later to be implemented into other European and Asian countries.

The ABIC manages many programs about coffee certification, all aimed at improving coffee quality, such as the coffee purity seal, which today serves as an example for other foods and beverages locally and worldwide. More recently, the ABIC implemented the coffee quality program that intends to offer consumers not only the most pleasure with the aroma and taste of coffee but also of health, with the proper roasting, as shown in details in this book. Additionally, Dr. Lima and Dr. Santos presented to ABIC a proposal entitled Coffee at Breakfast, Health at Schools that aimed to improve the food quality served at schools by offering coffee and milk to replace junk food and beverages related to childhood obesity. According to the author’s data, children who drink coffee with milk at home, early in the morning, and at school breakfast have a better academic performance, better mood, and are less obese. The youth population studied presented less depressive feelings and alcohol intake. This project is becoming of great importance due to its social and educative role. Dr. Lima and Dr. Santos are continuously fighting against the prejudice that coffee is not to be taken by children and youths by defending the hypothesis that it is a healthier drink than any other artificial beverage, such as sodas, which are rich in caffeine and calories. This book is an invitation to readers to learn really a lot more about the fantastic history of one of the most enjoyable human experiences—that of drinking coffee for pleasure and for health.

* Nathan Herszkowicz, fifty-seven years old, is an engineer and also the president of the Sao Paulo State Coffee Chamber; founder and counselor of the Museum Cafés do Brasil at the city of Santos, Brazil; creator of the Coffee Brewing Center of Sao Paulo; and ex-president of the Sao Paulo State Roasters Association.

Prologue

Dear reader,

This book is aimed only to coffee drinkers even though noncoffee drinkers might be interested too. The authors decided to write this book basically for five reasons:

After studying more than 2 million coffee consumers of all ages in these twenty years of research—not only at bench levels (basic research), but in hospitals (clinical research) and at schools (applied clinical research)—and also having visited every coffee-producing country in South and Central America to learn more about coffee and its origins, we would like to leave our impressions in this book about this important and healthy plant.

Coffee has many more important bioactive compounds rather than caffeine like chlorogenic acids, lactones, vitamin PP or niacin, and minerals such as potassium, iron, and zinc. It is impressive to think that today most people know more about the human genome (www.genome.gov) simply via Internet rather than about coffee. Coffee is still the first beverage that we all drink before we start our everyday lives, but we all keep talking exclusively about caffeine. Scientists and experts keep publishing obsessively about caffeine as if they were talking about coffee and health.

Many caffeine writers and caffeine scientists have spent their lives writing and doing research about caffeine, but most of them can hardly differentiate between a coffee tree and an orange tree, not to mention Coffea arabica and Coffea robusta, which are two totally different species of the same plant that are the main beans present in the green coffee. Of course, since they are different varieties of coffee, they have different composition of all the major bioactive compounds. Caffeine is a minor part of the five bioactive compounds found in properly roasted coffee: (1) phenols, which are mainly chlorogenic acids; (2) lactones, which are formed from chlorogenic acids after proper roasting; (3) caffeine, which can vary up to 200 percent when comparing robusta to arabica coffees; (4) vitamin PP or niacin; and (5) minerals (e.g., potassium, iron, zinc, etc.), not to mention almost one thousand of volatile compounds responsible for the pleasant aroma and taste of coffee. It is amazing to us that people still keep thinking that coffee can be detrimental to human health.

In the book All About Coffee by W. H. Ukers (1976), the author wisely wrote that the most interesting particularity about coffee’s history is that wherever it was introduced it led to revolutions. It is the most radical of beverages and always induces people to thinking. When people start to think it is always dangerous to tyrants and enemies of freedom.

We intend to show you why the coffee we drink with such pleasure is the most revolutionary of all the beverages that has changed human history and how it can change human health as well. Yes, coffee is a healthy beverage, a conclusion the authors have raised after all this time and now being confirmed everywhere. Additionally, we have learned that when you grow old, you can either become a better or worse person, all depending on what you do to help others. It is our idea that the overall coffee business, which involves almost 10 percent of world population, considering villains (the ones that take the bigger slice) and victims (the ones that we don’t see, but without them, there would be no beans to collect), that in between a hero may come out—the consumers all over the world, who can help promote a better distribution of the revenues from this coffee trade market, just by drinking coffee regularly and in moderation but also demanding the control not only of coffee quality but particularly of healthy properties by warranty adequate amount of all five bioactive compounds, leaving aside the caffeine obsession. Our objective is to provide an updated information about the leading facts of the modern science of coffee, from its chemistry to consumer’s healthy effects, in as few words as possible, leaving them to be tested, confirmed, amplified, or freed from obscurity by the reflection of you, our readers.

Roseane M. M. Santos, MSc, PhD

[e-mail]

Savannah, Georgia

Darcy R. Lima, M.D., PhD

[e-mail]

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Presentation

Let us introduce ourselves briefly. We are a couple who has been studying coffee and working with the whole chain of people involved in coffee trade—from the coffee farmers through the coffee industries and distributors down to the coffee consumers—and who has been focusing on the topic of coffee and health since 1982. It all began when Darcy R. Lima (DRL) returned from London where he completed his PhD in medicine at London University (St Bartholomew’s Hospital) and a postdoc in history of medicine. Then he came back to Brazil and raised a partnership with the other author (RMMS) who got her MSc on coffee research there and later her PhD at State University of New York at Buffalo, USA, and who is currently dedicated to teaching and researching at the School of Pharmacy at South University, Savannah, Georgia. After all these years, the authors of this book decided that it was about time to sit down and write a book on coffee. A book that we all could benefit from while enjoying a cup of coffee or while in a relaxing conversation about this topic through the pages of this book. It is our pleasure to offer you some brand-new information that is sure to be beneficial. We thought that a book on coffee rather than another form of expression would bring a warmer and friendlier connection with you than what it might be if through a computer screen and would bring far more to offer than what could be attained from a brief rendition in a magazine.

You will enjoy this book at home although the most ideal setting would be at the coffeehouse, since it is not just a place to get a cup of coffee but a part of a vibrant social network that is also a subject of this book. The coffee shop phenomenon—the rise of places with desirable ambiance to enjoy this fine beverage—has spread so fast that several universities are now considering to offer classes in coffee shop sociology, tracing the coffee shop experience back to the seventeenth century. Nowadays, we live increasingly divided between work, home, and shopping for basic needs or for simply enjoyment; even the meals are being replaced more and more by fast foods, snack bars, or restaurants. We don’t run into our neighbors and occasionally mingle much anymore; our lives now are reduced to a series of appointments managed electronically by either cell phone or by e-mail. Hence, the looming significance of what sociologists call third spaces—places where we can linger after a purchase and occasionally run into people without an appointment. Places just like the coffee shops. Nowadays, there is a revival of the coffeehouses and Penny Universities from the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries in a modern version named as Starbucks, Nespresso, Nero, Java, Café, Espresso, or as in nearly millions of coffeehouses throughout the world. It is really a revolution of social habits, business activities, and even a friendly way to meet with friends, not to mention the coffee break that is quite often the most important part in meetings, conferences, and reunions.

A Little Bit of History

Back in London, DRL, while working at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, found himself interested in learning about the lifestyle of some famous doctors and casually happened to learn about William Harvey (1578-1657), who in 1628 published his book Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (An Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals) where he proposed the idea that blood was pumped around the body and then returned back to the heart as a recycled closed system—a real scientific revolution. This theory called his attention since DRL is also a physician, but he was even more interested when he learned that Harvey was also involved with the introduction of the habit of drinking coffee in England. It all happened when Harvey was living in Italy where he received his diploma as doctor of medicine in 1602. During that time, Harvey was given a coffee to drink, and on his way back to England, he brought some coffee with him. The beverage was unknown in England, but Harvey got used in drinking coffee and started recommending it to his patients and colleagues as a healthy beverage. This makes us wonder if coffee might have helped Harvey in his revolutionary discoveries about blood circulation in the human body.

Coffee was a beverage exclusive for the Islamic people for one thousand years, from the seventh century until the seventeenth century, and it definitively helped spread Islamism since then. Muhammad ibn Abdullah (570-632), to whom, according to the Islam, God revealed his final message to humanity, compiled those revelations and formed the holy book of Islam—the Koran. Ancient legend tells that the archangel Gabriel brought a beverage as black as the Kaaba in Mecca to the prophet Abdullah, who was ill and in prayer. After drinking it, he regained all his strength and recommended to his followers to drink coffee in order to pray until late at night. The Arabs introduced the habit of drinking coffee in all countries they conquered, from the Balkans to Spain and North Africa. Meanwhile, in the Occident, water could not be consumed regularly because it was polluted and difficult to store. There were no refrigerators at that time. Instead, wine was the official beverage during the middle ages, but the Islamic people did not drink alcohol, only coffee.

By 1650, the first coffeehouse was said to be opened in London, and numerous coffeehouses emerged by then; that’s how coffee started its road to success in England. Nevertheless, many people objected coffee at that time. Many Christians were concerned with the beverage that came from the pagans of the orient. The Islamic people had been fiercely battling with the Christians for about six hundred years. Some feared that it was some kind of mysterious intoxicant that the Islamic people, who were forbidden to drink alcohol, had devised. Apparently, it was necessary to have the approval of Pope Clement VIII in Rome, who blessed and recommended coffee to all Christians. Coffee made its route from the Muslim world first to Venice in Italy, then France and later England, by conquering men and women who all began enjoying this new pleasant and healthy beverage. The seventeenth century when Harvey made his discovery—the age of Shakespeare and Milton, Velasquez and Rembrandt, Bach and Purcell, Cervantes and Molière, Newton and Leibnitz, Bacon and Descartes, Spinoza and Locke—was preeminently a period of intense individualism, either intellectual or spiritual. People began to realize that it was not enough to be a good brainier, but most importantly, to use it well. This attitude has prevailed ever since. Curiously, but not too surprisingly in hindsight, the habit of drinking coffee in the seventeenth century disseminated in a fantastic way until nowadays. The daily intake of coffee was a common habit practiced by most of the geniuses of that time. We strongly believe that coffee did help enlighten mankind through its healthy effects. It particularly affects the intellect and mood of many famous coffee drinkers. It had also helped displace other beverages, most of which were alcohol based and had consequently slowed the mental processes; and had been considered safer than plain water, which might be contaminated in those days before chlorination and other purification processes had been developed. It also might have had a very important participation in human evolution process by helping primitive man to stay awake to fight for food and for survival. The story of Harvey and the introduction of coffee as a beverage are significant to our story. While some of his contemporaries objected his coffee-drinking habit and enthusiasm for its widespread use for a number of reasons, in our days we have been witnessing the same kind of behavior. Many physicians have expressed specific concerns about some adverse effects on the cardiovascular system that coffee might bring about, a system of the body that Harvey had so keenly described. It turns out that these worries were based on faulty data or, more specifically, incorrect interpretation of data and not because of any nefarious purpose. Nevertheless, researchers were keen to find something that could explain burgeoning cardiovascular death rates, and coffee seemed to be a good target. But the problem lay mostly on underdeveloped techniques of population studies, which have now been largely resolved. We are now at the beginning of a new understanding on coffee, one that Harvey, undoubtedly, would have loved to know. In fact, despite an increasing number of reports in medical journals of the turnaround on current thinking about coffee and health—which have been relayed in various popular outlets such as TV news, magazines, newspapers and online postings—showing that coffee is healthy rather than harmful, most people are unaware of them or of their significance. Also, as frequently seen in an effort to balance out the coffee benefits, many warnings and cautions about coffee drinking have been put forth that often have no basis.

What Our Book Provides

The idea of writing this book first came to us because we observed that the great majority of people that drink coffee, although fully satisfied with the pleasant well feeling that accompanies a hot coffee, are also concerned with possible undesired effects; and that is when the enjoyment of drinking a cup of coffee is substituted by a guilty pleasure. Food sometimes replaces the guilty pleasure of sex. One tends to believe, or even just have the sense that, that in exchange for your enjoyment of coffee—through its taste, fragrance, and its whole body effect—there is some type of negative effect to your health and well-being. Such concern would not be unusual since we have been always led to believe that most pleasures come at a price; and there have been, from time to time, medical reports and books filled with hyperbole that suggest caffeine—and thus coffee—could be harmful as we have just pointed out.

We are bringing to you the results from more than twenty years of research on the history, chemistry, and effects of coffee in human health. And in this book we present you information that should not only alleviate any worries that you might have about coffee but will actually assure you that drinking coffee can be good for your health—a pleasure with a benefit! It is not only our own work that reveals this but also a large number of brand-new studies in this third millennium that were made by innumerous colleagues worldwide who studied human health. You may wonder why we have been studying coffee in so many different aspects. Well, we were actually studying the possibility of comparing coffee with the apple offered to Eve in the Garden of Eden. Similarly, a red berry, which is coffee, was offered to our ancestor Lucy, the first Eve, who ate the red berry in the ancient hills of Ethiopia—the cradle of mankind. We believe that coffee, far more than the apple, can offer greater benefits to people, improving their state of mind, the function of their body, and their well-being. Only coffee can be considered as the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden, The tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad (Genesis 2:17).

Interestingly, the best-known component in coffee, caffeine, though much maligned, is actually one of the few substances discovered that, through technological research, resulted in the development of a product that met all the criteria for pleasure and health, at least when it is consumed adequately. It is essential to keep in mind that drinking coffee is not the same as consuming caffeine, a substance that appears in numerous guises, from soft drinks to drugs. What you experience with these other forms of beverages has little to do with drinking coffee, and there is no comparison. Caffeine is far less interesting as an isolated compound or when arbitrarily blended inside an artificial beverage than when it is combined with other natural compounds we find in natural products like coffee beans. Books and articles about caffeine are often written with the purpose of proclaiming any fault that is found, maybe because this will attract attention since most people drink coffee or some other type of caffeine-containing beverages. However, their approach often degenerates into complaints about things such as nutritional values—for example high sugar content of cola drinks—or problems with product labeling and identification of unexpected presence of caffeine in different products, or even from results of research laboratories of the effect of high doses of caffeine in small animals or in normal human volunteers. All these analyses are not the best source of information about coffee, particularly when concerning the study of coffee and health.

It turns out, as will be discussed later in this book, that after intensive investigation, we’ve found that the presence of caffeine in the coffee fits into an integrated and dynamic group of a handful of healthy molecules. Coffee has many bioactive compounds, but only the caffeine is well-known to the public. Coffee is abundant in antioxidants polyphenolics known as chlorogenic acids (7-10 percent), which is at even higher concentrations than caffeine (1.2-2.2 percent) and quinolactones formed after proper coffee roasting (3-4 percent). Coffee has also significant amounts of minerals (e.g., potassium, iron, zinc) and vitamins (e.g., niacin [vitamin B3]) and other important natural active components (e.g., the alkaloid known as trigonelline). The number of volatiles that causes the pleasant aroma and taste can account for more than one thousand. Together, they contribute to the coffee’s overall pleasure and its healthy and positive effects on the human body. It is this unique combination of components that turns coffee into a supreme healthy drink that causes neither harm nor guilty pleasure sensation. You already know by yourself the pleasure of drinking coffee and sharing time with friends over a cup of coffee; now, you will be introduced to the science behind its health benefits.

An interesting result of the coffee studies is that we can now identify which beans (by species), which roasting processes (such as light or dark), and which brewing processes (such as drip or percolated) lead to the healthiest coffee beverages. You will be pleased to learn that the coffees with the highest contributions of health benefits also have a great taste and aroma. But there is also the junk coffee. Although it may taste good as a beverage, it only presents the thermostable compound found in coffee, which is caffeine, and lots of volatiles responsible for the taste and aroma, which is characterized by a dark-roasted color. It is possible that your favorite coffee may be rated as somewhat below the range that provides the most desirable level of health benefits, but there are ways to manage that with any preferences you might have and make some slight adjustments to yield a healthy cup of coffee. While you can enjoy whatever your favorite brew might be and still attain benefits by blending in or occasionally using the optimal coffees, these benefits can be multiplied. After reading this book, it will be up to you to decide whether or not you want to get the full benefits of your daily coffee, by choosing the proper blend of beans roasted in proper conditions. A coffee that can provide you health benefits rather than pleasure only.

But what are the potential healthy benefits of coffee? Well, the most proclaimed benefit of coffee is its powerful antioxidant activity, which is considered of great value in protecting health, especially in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, followed by its preventive role against all various conditions such as depression/suicide, alcoholism/cirrhosis, Parkinson’s disease, gallstones, colon, liver, and prostate cancer—just to name a few. Further, it reduces the risk of developing diabetes; it has powerful opioid antagonist activity (thus, decreasing the craving for alcohol, nicotine, and perhaps even illicit drugs), mild antiobesity activity, enhances endurance during prolonged exercise, helps in relieving bronchial asthma symptoms, and able to prevent many forms of cancer.

You will find something completely new about coffee in this book that cannot be found in any other books on this subject at the present—from the coffee beans to cup, detailed information about the roasting processes, the different coffee bean species, and their final contents in terms of presence of healthy compounds in the brewed coffee. Do not take any coffee for granted. There are coffees and coffees; and it is vital for you to know what they actually have, such as minerals, caffeine, chlorogenic acids, niacin, and volatiles, so that you will drink coffee with a mind orientated to health. You will learn why it is important to know the difference between Coffea arabica and Coffea robusta, particularly nowadays when Vietnam is the second biggest coffee producer mainly of robusta variety, which has two to three times more caffeine than the arabica, which is the main species that most Americans and Europeans used to drink. This can be translated that a big cup of coffee arabica that one can drink has 1 mg per milliliter of caffeine, while in the same volume of coffee robusta, this can go up to 3 mg per milliliter. If you do the math, this means that 500 ml will have more than 1.500 mg of caffeine, an extremely high amount that cannot be healthy to caffeine-sensitive consumer. But coffee, remember, is not only caffeine. Blends of Coffea arabica (80 percent) with that of robusta (up to 20 percent) can offer additional and healthy properties to coffee, provided it is properly roasted.

You will also learn that too much attention has been given to coffee and very little to the consumers. You can buy sustainable coffee; organic coffee, gourmet coffee, flavored coffee, or a very special coffee for pleasure; but little is offered to consumers concerning coffee for health since there is no label disclosure of its contents. You will be surprised to learn a lot about the coffee paradox, which is far more important than the French paradox. When it comes to pleasure, the lack of volatiles in soluble coffee promotes profound differences when compared with the properly roasted coffee. But the healthy effects are all preserved. It is also important to learn that too much roasting (many Italian espressos, very dark strong coffee, etc.) may decrease the final amount of active compounds in coffee, except caffeine. Caffeine is the backbone of coffee as it is thermostable, as all the others are modified by roasting. You will find it interesting to learn that the aroma of coffee and the physiology of olfaction are related to pleasure as well as to love and passion. The larger the number of different kinds of smell you are able to identify from your childhood to adulthood, the more your brain will be able to translate pleasure and emotions. The two Nobel Prize winners in 2004, Drs. Richard Axel and Linda Buck, have made discoveries about the odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system. They discovered that the more good smells you are able to identify, like the ones at home (e.g., mother, pets, roses, coffee, etc.), the more your brain will be able to function emotionally. Like for instance, you might be able to forget that you saw a spoiled egg served in a restaurant, but you’ll never forget the smell of it. This is because olfaction is one of the most powerful senses, and coffee is a plant that stimulates our olfaction the most, due to thousands of volatile compounds present in the brewed coffee. In fact, coffee has a much higher amount of volatile compounds than in the perfume of a rose or in the aroma of a wine. For this reason, French sniffers were hired by Frederick the Great in the late eighteenth century to find out where people were roasting coffee, a forbidden act by the emperor. To solve this problem, the Germans began spending their weekends in small farms in the countryside where hot water and a pot was provided so people could roast their own coffee. This custom has made the Germans the major exporter of roasted coffee in the world without even having a single crop in the country.

As you will learn from reading this book, there are a number of reasons why coffee could turn into the number one healthy drink. Still, there are other beverages that certainly should not be ignored, such as tea, soft drinks, colas, and fruit juices. In addition, coffee drinking can round out a lifestyle with the same known effects of coffee in producing pleasure as well as in promoting health and helping you keep yourself in shape.

The role of coffee and its participation in society over the centuries are also covered in this book. You probably already understood that coffee—through its action on the body and mind, its taste and form, its convenience and reasonable cost—fuels personal relationships, gives a boost to development of business ideas and academic accomplishments, helps mental and physical activity, and consequently helps the world to make progress. Coffee drinking also is at the summit of a worldwide industry that employs tens of millions of people as it is one of the world’s largest commodities.

In fact coffee should no longer be considered a commodity but part of the food commerce as it is represented by the seeds (beans) of the fruit coffee. The majority of human calories come from seeds, especially from cereals, legumes and nuts. Seeds also provide most cooking oils, many beverages and spices and some important food additives. Whether it is the smiling server at one of the dozens of coffee outlets in your local area or the roasting company or the distribution network or those who grow and collect the coffee, the people employed in the coffee business are making a good living while providing a healthful and socially beneficial product. Chances are if you own any mutual funds (either as direct investments or hidden in pension plans or elsewhere), you are part owner of several companies involved in the coffee trade. What you might not realize is that the coffee industry is poised for a leap. There is an increase in coffee consumption occurring at the populous East Asia, which is traditionally a tea-drinking region and is now discovering the delights of coffee drinking and its health effects.

We have included also in this book some interesting information about the role of coffee in human history. No other beverage has had more positive impact and importance to mankind than coffee. This will be illustrated by providing you information about some famous coffee drinkers—from the Hebrews, King David and King Solomon, to Muhammad, founder of the Islam, to Pope Clement VIII and then to all Christians from Casanova to Wyatt Earp and from General Grant to the famous Brazilian soccer player Romario, not to mention famous people like Jim Carrey, Kevin Spacey, Robin Williams as well as the unique genius Bill Gates, as coffee seemed to have helped each one of them to reach the top.

We hope that any further questions you might have will be answered in this book; in case you need extra information, we have provided the resources for your reference, including those that will lead you to the latest findings on coffee and health even after this book has been published.

It is our goal to add to the pleasure you already have when drinking coffee—the confidence rather than the worry—and show you how to get the most healthful benefits from your coffee. Coffee is far safer and healthier than all artificial beverages available so far, not to mention the alcoholic ones, and must be placed onto the base of any good and healthy food pyramids for the times to come, particularly considering that wine, far less healthy than coffee, is already included in the famous Harvard food pyramid.

Roseane M. M. Santos, MSc, PhD

[e-mail]

Savannah, Georgia

Darcy R. Lima, MD, PhD

[e-mail]

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Chronology of Coffee Revolutions (70 Steps)

1. 1500 BCE—Coffee grows wild since ancient times in the Great Rift Valley, a vast area which runs from northern Syria in Asia to Mozambique in Africa, and includes the Sinai Peninsula, the Dead Sea and Jordan River valley. Coffee is a beverage quoted many times into the Bible: Esau despised his birthright by having red beans instead to drink (Genesis 25:30). Moses and King David’s grandfather Obed, son of Ruth and Boaz, drunk coffee as well. "Any man or woman who makes a special vow to become a Nazirite and dedicates himself to the Lord shall abstain from wine and strongdrink" (Number 6:2-4)

2. 1200 BCE—Helen of Troy, who was the daughter of Zeus and Leda and wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, used to carry with her a nepenthe made of coffee and wine to assuage her torments. Later, her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War.

3. 1000 BCE—King David was offered coffee to recover from exhaustion. "They brought bowls, clay pots, and bedding, as well as food for David and his men: wheat, barley, meal,roastedgrain, beans, peas, honey, cheese, cream, and some sheep. They knew that David and his men would get hungry, thirsty, and tired in the wilderness" (2 Samuel 17:28). His son, King Solomon, loved the Queen of Sheba and the excellent coffee she brought from Ethiopia (1 Kings 10:10). Nomadic Oromos tribes from Kaffa in Ethiopia chewed coffee berry mixed with animal-fat balls (primitive energy bar)

4. 600-1600 CE—Coffee was introduced from Ethiopian to Yemen highlands. Arabs were the first to cultivate coffee and start its trade. Muhammad drank and recommended coffee intake to Islamic people in order to pray until late at night. Famous Arabs, as Razes and Avicenna, enjoyed coffee. The habit of drinking coffee helped the spread of Islam (wine was adopted by Christians instead).

5. 1592—Prosper Alpin, director of the Botanical Garden in Padua, visited Egypt and described the coffee tree in his work entitled PlantsofEgypt.

6. 1600—Pope Clement VIII tasted coffee and gave it his blessing. Coffee in turn was adopted by Christians to help spread the spirit of Renascence. The Dutch decided to cultivate coffee from Yemen into Java, Indonesia.

7. 1615—Venetian merchants imported coffee from Mocha to Venice and to all Europe.

8. 1628—William Harvey tasted coffee while in Padua during his permanency in 1600 and brought it back to England, thus, introducing coffee in Europe.

9.