Coffee: Is it good for us?
If you’re a coffee drinker, you probably don’t drink coffee only on occasion. Coffee drinkers drink coffee everyday. Sometimes several times a day. It’s invigorating, life-giving, energizing stuff. But as Jordan Peterson reminds us, we must be careful with things we do every day. We must make sure they are good. Do we need to be careful about our coffee? Is the coffee we drink good for us?
The good news is well, really good. Your deep joy in waking up and making yourself a cup of coffee is not founded in taste alone. Turns out, coffee is really great for you. Regular coffee consumption is linked with significantly lower rates of neurological diseases, type 2 diabetes,
cancer, liver disease, and depression.
More than that, a 2019 meta-analysis of 40 observational studies with over 4 million participants showed that people who drink a few cups of coffee every day had a significantly lower chance of dying from any cause, including of course heart disease and cancer than those who didn’t drink coffee at all In other words, coffee drinkers live longer with significantly less disease than non coffee drinkers.
There are a few things to keep in mind, however, when rejoicing over these findings (which you already knew were true deep down, especially when you’ve had the pleasure of tasting really good, fresh coffee). You would drastically reduce these benefits if you were filling that coffee cup everyday with sugar in some form or another, or if you were drinking way too much of a good thing and the caffeine was causing dehydration and the jitters.
Aside from that, however, there’s one more thing to think about. There have been some concerns over mycotoxins in coffee. Mycotoxins are the naturally occurring toxins produced by certain molds and are known to cause illness if consumed at toxic levels. Mycotoxins such as aflatoxin and ochratoxin A are two molds that have been found in different coffees among various lab samples. The levels of mold, however, are usually not high enough in coffee to cause any health concern. These molds are also present in many foods in our food supply such as grains and juices, but again, not at levels high enough to cause concern.
As with any food, however, your chances of having healthy, safe coffee are greatly increased when the coffee has been grown, processed, and stored correctly. The benefit of being a small batch roaster is that we can achieve a level of oversight and attention to detail that many commercial coffee producers would find very difficult to execute. Moreover, as a specialty coffee roaster, the coffee that we source is subject to stricter standards during harvesting and roasting, and is among the highest quality coffee available. We often source organic coffee, but always coffee low in pesticides, and always from family farms or small co-ops where the entire process is carefully attended to, from grower to shipper to roaster, providing you the freshest coffee possible – much, much fresher than many of the coffee selections sitting on the grocery store shelf. Many conscientious people choose this for their food, you should choose this kind of freshness for your coffee too. You may not eat kale everyday, though when you do you’ll be sure to buy it locally and organic. How much more careful should you be with something you consume everyday like your coffee? Why not choose the best?
Sources:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16772246/