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| A Quick Guide to Finding Good, Healthy Recipes Online Posted: 11 Mar 2011 01:51 PM PST This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Health Buzz: Coffee Tied to Lower Stroke Risk Posted: 11 Mar 2011 08:32 AM PST Study: Coffee Lowers Stroke Risk in Women Good news, coffee lovers: Having a cup—or five—a day may slash your stroke risk, a new study suggests. Swedish researchers followed nearly 35,000 women ages 49 to 83 for 10 years, and found that those who drank at least one cup of joe per day had a 22 to 25 percent lower risk of stroke than those who drank less or none at all. The benefit was seen regardless of whether the women downed one cup or more than five daily, according to the study published Thursday in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Although the women didn't specify if their brew was regular or decaffeinated, very few people drink decaf in Sweden, the researchers said. Exactly why coffee may protect against stroke is unclear, but the researchers speculate that it reduces inflammation and improves insulin resistance—both risk factors for stroke. Coffee is also packed with antioxidants, which are known to benefit health. "Coffee drinkers should rejoice," Sharonne Hayes, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, told the Associated Press. "There really hasn't been any study that convincingly said coffee is bad. If you are drinking coffee now, you may be doing some good and you are likely not doing harm." Still, there's no reason to develop a coffee habit based on the results. The study doesn't prove cause and effect, and the authors say more research is needed to understand the health effects of coffee consumption. Is Coffee Bad for You? Actually, Drinking Coffee May Be Good for You It's believed to improve mood, alertness, and energy. But is coffee bad for you? Despite past concerns about coffee, tea, and other sources of caffeine being detrimental to health, research suggests that regular coffee consumption may reduce the risk of health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and liver cancer—and regular coffee drinkers might even live longer. "For most people [who] choose to drink coffee, the benefits probably outweigh the risks," says Donald Hensrud, chair of the division of preventive medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "In the past, a lot of people have tried to improve their health by cutting down on coffee," says Rob M. van Dam, assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. But that's probably an unnecessary sacrifice, U.S. News reported in June 2009. Although experts once thought caffeine was harmful, "studies have been largely reassuring," he says. In the past, it has been hard to differentiate the health effects of coffee versus those tied to smoking cigarettes, since heavy coffee drinkers are more likely to smoke than other people. Coffee is "not only a vehicle for caffeine," says van Dam. "It has a lot of other components." It's likely that those other components—such as antioxidants and fiber—account for some of coffee's health benefits, experts say. "We always hear about tea, and especially green tea, being a good source of antioxidants, but it's been reported that coffee may be the largest source of antioxidants among people who drink it," says Hensrud. More research is needed to understand how these other ingredients might benefit health among coffee drinkers. {Read more: Is Coffee Bad for You? Actually, Drinking Coffee May Be Good for You.] Kids Are Getting Amped on Caffeine, Even at Age 5 Most school-age children drink caffeinated drinks, and many of them are imbibing enough caffeine to give adults the jitters, writes U.S. News contributor Nancy Shute. And their sleep is suffering. That's according to the Journal of Pediatrics, which surveyed parents on their children's caffeine habits last December. It turns out that 5- to 7-year-olds on average drink 52 milligrams of caffeine daily, or the caffeine equivalent of one Coke. That may not sound too bad, but the 228 parents in the study admitted their 8- to 12-year-olds drink the caffeine equivalent of almost three Cokes daily. And the more caffeine the kids took in, the less they slept. It's hard to imagine parents thinking double lattes are a good choice for kids, but the fact is that 75 percent of the 228 parents surveyed by the researchers, at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, said their kids down caffeinated drinks daily. Soft drinks are the biggest culprit; they're also a bad choice for kids because they're high in sugar, with zero nutritional value. Schools don't always help on this. Another study found that 14 percent of public elementary school students and 38 percent of private elementary school students can buy sugar-sweetened beverages at school. And kids often don't realize that Gatorade and other sports drinks are just soft drinks in disguise. [Read more: Kids Are Getting Amped on Caffeine, Even at Age 5.]
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