Magic Cabin

Friday, January 18, 2008

The Pros and Cons of Coffee Drinking

I've been drinking way more coffee lately than I used to. Way more. I'm talking about "never used to drink it" to "I drink it everyday, sometimes many times in a day." That's why I'm doing a wee bit of research into the effects of coffee drinking. Here's what I found out by looking it up over on WebMD:

Pros

  1. reduces the risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease (I think only if you also smoke which I don't), and Type 2 diabetes
  2. increases short term memory and overall thinking
  3. it is an antioxidant, diuretic, and laxative
  4. reduces risk of gall stones

Cons
  1. stains your teeth
  2. can dehydrate and constipate you
  3. makes for foul-smelling breath (in my opinion)
  4. various other issues if it has caffeine (it makes my mom jittery)
  5. may raise blood pressure

It looks like I will have to make my own decision here. The pros and cons simply aren't convincing enough to sway me either way. There are new brands of so-called healthy coffee we should try. I'd much rather be a tea-drinking person though, than a coffee-drinking one. Maybe my conscience is bothering me because I know the coffee we're drinking isn't fair trade. (Read here about Folgers and their fair trade coffee trials and then go here to help coffee-farming families improve the quality of their lives.) I dunno. I'm going to give it some more thought.

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