In columns last fall, I described how I stopped drinking coffee after decades of swilling 5 to 7 cups per day. I was evangelical about kicking my habit, arguing that caffeine transforms us into automatons, cogs in the capitalist machine. Recently, however, my faith in being caffeine-free was tested.
My girlfriend, “Emily,” who never ceases seeking ways for me to improve myself, told me to check out a New York Times article, “How Deepak Chopra, Wellness Expert, Spends His Sundays.” The Times calls Chopra, who was trained as a physician, an “alternative medicine and New Age megastar.” On a typical Sunday, Chopra meditates, does yoga, and takes long walks.
Emily apparently considered Chopra’s regimen superior to mine, which involves lots of lolling on a couch. But Chopra’s daily routine also includes three cups of coffee. “I used to have only one,” Chopra tells the Times, “but my brother, who’s a doctor, convinced me to have more. He thinks everyone should have five cups, but that’s too much.”
I met Chopra a few years ago at a conference he organized, “Sages and Scientists.” (I’m not a scientist, I told Emily, so that means I’m a sage. She smirked, assuming I was joking.) So I emailed Chopra and asked him about his coffee remarks. He put me in touch with his brother, Sanjiv, a physician and professor at Harvard Medical School.
Sanjiv, it turns out, is writing a book on coffee, and he devoted a chapter to coffee in his 2016 book, The Big Five: Five Things You Can Do to Live a Longer, Healthier Life. Sanjiv also serves on the board of Purity Organic Coffee, but he said this relationship has no bearing on his medical judgment.
Sanjiv forwarded me studies that linked coffee to lower risk of liver disease and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, among other diseases. In a 2015 interview, Sanjiv cited a study of nurses that found “significant inverse associations” between coffee consumption and “deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease, neurologic diseases, and suicide.”
Googling on my own, I discovered that, like most nutritional topics, coffee’s effects are hotly contested. Older studies have suggested that coffee raises the risk of cancer. Last March, a California court ruled that coffee outlets should post warnings that acrylamide, a byproduct of roasting coffee (and of producing potato chips and other popular foods), is a carcinogen.
The coffee lobby protested that decision, and a state health agency later reversed it, pointing out that the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer found “inadequate evidence” that coffee causes cancer. If anything, coffee might reduce the risks of liver and uterine cancer, according to the IARC.
The most impressive evidence I found for coffee’s benefits is a meta-analysis published in the British Medical Journal in 2017. It concludes that coffee reduces the risk of melanoma, leukemia, and prostate, oral, and lung cancers, among others. Coffee also decreases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and all-cause mortality. In other words, the average coffee drinker lives longer than the average non-drinker. The study found adverse effects only for pregnant women.
Coffee’s benefits are thought to stem not only from caffeine but also from other compounds, notably antioxidants. Hence decaffeinated coffee can be beneficial too. The BMJ authors raise an important caveat, however. They warn that many people might avoid coffeebecausethey are in poor health. A comparison of this group to coffee-drinkers would make coffee appear more beneficial than it really is.
So where does that leave me? I’ve felt a little blah recently, and I’ve been craving that old morning jolt. But for now, I’m staying off coffee. Maybe the Chopra brothers can remain mindful while caffeinated, but I can’t. I feel calmer and less impatient than I once did. Emily says I’ve backslid a little, but I’m still nicer than before kicking my habit. And I don’t need caffeine to write. So in 2019 I’m going to try staying caffeine-free. I encourage all you java junkies out there to join me.
John Horgan directs the Center for Science Writings, which is part of the College of Arts & Letters. This column is adapted from one originally posted on his Scientific American blog, “Cross-check.”
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