by Dr. Carolyn Dean
(The Best Years in Life) In August 2010, I wrote an article for the Huffington Post called Coffee Addiction: How to Naturally Kick the Habit.
Recently another Huff Post article came out with the opposite view, 7 Health Benefits Of Coffee. It’s a review of the “so-called” scientific research that says coffee can lower cholesterol, prevent cancer, diabetes, depression…and make you a millionaire…
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OK, that last benefit is not true…but, let’s look at what the studies really say. One study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that drinking 8 cups of coffee a day can raise your HDL cholesterol allowing every coffee lover to feel vindicated. Even thought HDL was raised by a measly 7%. You can probably shift your HDL that much by holding your breath when having your blood taken. I’m kidding, but you get the point.
Some of these studies look at a few dozen people who are told to drink a certain amount of coffee and one or two types of blood tests are measured. In the above case they measure cholesterol and inflammatory markers.
But they are not looking at the underlying negative effects of too much coffee, such as magnesium deficiency caused by the diuretic effect of coffee. As your body loses magnesium, then your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar are going to rise. Any short term gains created by coffee are soon lost…but that’s after the study is closed and the erroneous findings are blasted through the media by the coffee industry.