Update:  New article published on MSNBC –  25 May –underscores health benefits of coffee –  and further proves premise of optimal coffee ingestion at five to six cups.  (Previous studies showed the majority of benefits at five cups/ day.)

Posting this for a friend, who wasn’t quite convinced by my arguments for coffee..  Added the video just for a light-hearted touch..and who doesn’t like David Bowie..

Happily,  the majority of people have gotten away from the incorrect notion that coffee is somehow harmful, the “I gave up cigarettes and coffee” mentality.. It always irks me a bit when coffee drinking is lumped into a group of unhealthy behaviors….Stay away from coffee… and crack cocaine, people… But seriously, this is one beverage that has been mislabeled over the years – undeservedly.

With so many honest – to-  goodness harmful food additives,  fast food and other ‘junk‘ we put in our bodies – misidentifying coffee is a tragedy (albeit, a small one.)  Admittedly, it is hard on my dental enamel – but otherwise, it is a welcome part of my daily routine.

So today, we are going to review some of our previous posts and the latest published information on coffee and it’s health effects..

For starters, we are going back to a post dated March 2011 – where I first reviewed my love of the hot, rich beverage, along with a summary of health benefits..

We talked about preliminary research suggesting coffee may be protective against strokes.. An additional study on this was actually just published last month, as reported in Medscape.com, Moderate coffee intake protects against stroke, (11 May, 2012) on a meta-analysis presented at the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) European Meeting on Hypertension 2012 by Dr Lanfranco D’Elia. 

Then – a year ago (May 2011) we brought you more information about coffee as a potent anti-oxidant, and potential implications for preventing cancer (and refuting claims that it caused cancer.)

Following that – in July of 2011 – we went as far as proclaiming ‘superfood status’ when preliminary research suggested coffee ingesters were less likely to have MRSA colonization.

We haven’t even touched on the diabetes, and pancreatic cancer angle today, but suffice to say that research shows that the pancreas has a definite affinity for coffee..

Now, on the heels of reports of the underdiagnosis and increasing incidence of fatty liver disease – comes a study in the Annals of Hepatology entitled, “High coffee intake is associated with lower grade nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: the role of peripheral antioxidant activity.”  Translated for readers, this small study by Gutierrez – Grobe, et. al (2012) suggests that high coffee intake is actual beneficial and may have a protective effect on the liver.  Now – don’t get too excited – since it was just a very small study, of 130 subjects – coffee and noncoffee drinkers, 73 without liver disease and 57 with liver disease.  So clearly, we need to look at this more closely..

But in the meantime, you can keep drinking your coffee.