Caffeine and Science
Featured In: The Oregonian Food Day
Article By: Barbara Durbin
Coffee Lovers, There Is A God
Turns out our favorite morning drug and brain kick-starter, all in one cup, doesn't deserve to be the whipping boy of the food and beverage world. In the past 30 years, headlines have hinted that coffee (possibly the caffeine in it) causes heart disease, breast lumps, fertility problems, birth defects, miscarriages, you name it - but especially some cancer du jour.
Follow-up news stories often revealed flaws in the reported studies. Although coffee's reputation wasn't permanently smeared, it wasn't given a scientific seal or consumer kiss of approval, either.
Despite the suspicions, most java lovers continued to drink the stuff. Frightened, others switched to decaf. But now, coffee's been given a clean bill of health by the federal government and every major health and food group - if drunk in moderation. In fact - hold onto your mugs - coffee, tea, cocoa and even chocolate may help protect your heart and fight off some cancers. Proof is still perking in lab test tubes and animals. More detailed epidemiological studies - on groups of people and what they eat, drink and die from - are needed. But the reports look encouraging.
Recently, when members of the American Chemical Society met in Anaheim, Calif., the Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry devoted its four days of meeting to caffeine - and food and drinks that contain it.
Experts came from Great Britain, France, China, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Korea and the United States. They presented 46 scientific papers on their latest research about caffeine and other beneficial compounds found in coffee, tea, kola nuts (used to flavor colas and "pepper" drinks), chocolate and cocoa. Half a dozen food companies helped fund the studies, a common practice in the research world.
The scientists' findings will be reviewed by peers and published by the society later this year. The outlook is optimistic.
In addition to caffeine, part of the excitement's over certain compounds, called polyphenols and catechins (pronounced CAT-uh-kins), naturally present in these foods. they act like other antioxidants, the current darlings of the nutrition world.
You've read the news and seen food commercials touting how antioxidants, such as vitamins E and C, fight cancers by tackling cancer-causing free-radical molecules. antioxidants also prevent LDL, low-density lipoproteins (the "bad" cholesterol), from being oxidized - the start of heart disease. Heart disease and cancer are the nation's two top killers.
Andrew Sivak, an environmental health sciences consultant from St. Augustine, Fla., presented the most stunning anti-cancer news at Anaheim. In 15 of 17 studies, he says drinking coffee "markedly reduces the risk of colon cancer" - by 25 percent to 30 percent.
The studies weren't limited to one culture, either. They included the United States, Asia and Europe - with people drinking usual amounts - not extraordinary volumes. Sivak also cites four studies on lab rats and mice, which were slurping far more coffee, relatively, than people ever would, yet didn't end up with excess tumors. In fact, rats in one study had a "significant reduction" in breast tumors.
Like the other presenters, Sivak points to studies confirming that drinking moderate amounts of coffee (defined as 300 milligrams, or about 3 cups) isn't linked to any type of cancer.
Also, recent research at Harvard University found that men who drank several cups of caffeinated coffee each day had a 40 percent lower risk of developing gallstones than men who didn't drink coffee.
Edward G. Miller, a professor at Baylor College of Dentistry, a member of the Texas A&M System Health Science Center, is trying to pinpoint some of the good-guy components in coffee. Green (unroasted) coffee beans have "significantly" curbed tumors in lab animals, according to other studies. However, since we never drink coffee made from unroasted beans, Miller wondered if roasted beans would have the same anti-cancer effect.
From his studies, the answer is yes.
In one experiment, he divided 68 hamsters into four groups. The control group ate only dry chow. The second group dined on ground roasted coffee beans mixed with their chow. The third group's rations included defatted roasted coffee beans. The fourth ate chow mixed with coffee bean oil.
All of these special diets inhibited tumors, in size and in numbers. In short, roasting didn't stop the beans' cancer-fighting ability. But the group that ate the chow laced with ground roasted coffee beans had fewer and smaller tumors than the other three groups.
Previously, researchers thought coffee's oil was the magic ingredient. Now they know it's not that simple. The oil may be beneficial, but clearly there are additional compounds that help, too.
The scientists' good news wasn't limited to coffee. Tea lovers should be cheering, too. Yukihiko Hara of Mitsui Norin Co. in Fujieda City, Japan, offers a whole laundry list of health benefits gathered from many studies. These benefits are because of several epicatechins naturally present in green tea.
Hara reports the epicatechins, which are forms of catechins, are not only antioxidants and cancer fighters but also antibacterial. They fight viruses, prevent tumors and help reduce stroke. Furthermore, you don't have to swig gallons of tea to get the benefits. Amounts that tea drinkers normally quaff offer these pluses.
Zhen-Yu Chen, a scientist with the Department of Biochemistry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, gave hamsters a lard-laced diet to create bold cholesterol levels similar to those in people. At the same time, he fed them green tea epicatechins or green tea extract. (And by the way, those rodents prefer a bit of sugar in their tea, thank you.)
The result? while their little bodies still produced cholesterol, they didn't absorb high levels, as you might expect. Chen thinks this may have implications for people who eat a lot of fat.
Green tea (the kind often served in Chinese restaurants) has more polyphenol antioxidants than black tea - the type most Americans drink. Even decaffeinated teas contain polyphenols, although, obviously, not caffeine - which has its own benefits.
Chi-Tang Ho, a Department of Food Science Professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswich, N.J., says that in his studies caffeine was applied to the skin and added to drinking water of mice and rats. It inhibited tumors in their stomachs, lungs and on their skin.
While coffee and tea lovers will be pleased with the health news, all this research could mean food processors will be dancing, too.
Food companies had to take a defensive position on what was in coffee so they could counter negative health claims, says Stanley Segall, coffee expert and professor in the Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
But with all the latest findings, he adds, "They've recently come to know a good attack is the best defense." Now coffee companies not only can claim it's not harmful, "They can imply benefits, too."
If research could pinpoint components in coffee that contribute to flavor, there might be another possibility. Segall hypothesizes companies could create a synthetic coffee, just as margarine was created as an alternative to butter. A food processor could market both - the real stuff and a cheaper imitation.
But, with coffee's complexity - more than 700 volatile compounds in it have been identified - creating a good fake coffee would be a long shot. "Let me put it this way," Segall explains. "I have a better shot at winning the lottery."