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After tea, coffee is the most popular drink in the world. As you read this, many of you may have a cup in your hand and they will be relieved to learn that a study announced this week, funded in part by the British Heart Foundation and conducted by researchers at Queen Mary University in London, revealed that even drinking up to 25 cups of coffee a day was not more likely to cause stiffening of the arteries than not to drink coffee at all.
Good news! But not very new news. Perhaps because we drink a lot, coffee has been the subject of many studies on its effects on health. It turns out that coffee does not cause cancer, incontinence, bone fragility, dehydration, gallstones, liver injury, dementia or even – as was once thought to be due to its acidity – stomach ulcers.
In fact, most recent studies have highlighted its health benefits. It is now said that drinking coffee protects against Parkinson's disease, liver disease, and type 2 diabetes. It has also been shown to improve cognitive function, reduce the risk of depression, and prevent the disease. Alzheimer.
Caffeine blocks the effects of adenosine, a brain chemical that tires, while causing the release of adrenaline, the fight or flight hormone. It keeps you alert. These properties can also make falling asleep difficult, increase heart rate and exacerbate anxiety, but these side effects are temporary and disappear as caffeine is removed from the system.
In Britain, we love our milky and sweet coffee; more dangerous than the coffee itself is all the sugar we put in it. (We sweeten our coffee more than we sweeten our tea, probably because it's more acidic.) Some specialty confections, such as a white chocolate mocha topped with syrup and whipped cream, and caramel lattes, are loaded with more sugar than a can of coca.
Unfortunately, espresso is a continental habit that has not yet made its way to Britain. If we could take our black coffee, it could even be considered medicinal. The most recent research shows that caffeine stimulates our mitochondria – considered as cell generators – that increase the functional capacity of the cells lining our blood vessels. The coffee is good for us. Maybe we should take it prophylactically, like aspirin?
For the moment, Britain is still a nation of tea drinkers. But tea consumption is down and coffee consumption has increased over the last 20 years.
Growth has come from the rise of coffee shops. Independent stores and big chains like Starbucks and Costa have become meeting places for friends and colleagues, working on a laptop or sitting down to rest and use the facilities.
Cafes are not a new phenomenon, however. They came to Europe from the Muslim world in the 17th century, transported by the merchant powers of Malta and Venice. London's first café was opened in 1652 by a Greek employee of the Levant Company, who traded with the Ottoman Empire.
In 1700, there were about 550 cafés in the city of London – a density much higher than today's cafes compared to the population. They were homes of the Enlightenment, where the friendliness and vitality of coffee consumption encouraged new ideas: the insurance sector, the stock market, newspapers, political parties. For a penny, the price of a coffee, no matter who can enter.
In the Middle East (between its wars), I have often seen cafes perform the same function: a neutral place without alcohol, where rich and poor, people of different policies and beliefs and even women could meet.
Coffee not only provides a health benefit, but also a social benefit. It is perhaps not surprising that the Scandinavians – the long-time champions of so many clues to health, welfare and democracy – are also at the top of the world's per capita coffee consumption rankings. .
The writer is the author of a novel 'Paris Metro'
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