Yet again, another study on coffee is out there in a world of hundreds, if not thousands, of studies on its negative or positive outcomes, but this latest salute to the joys of coffee addresses the reasons why we shouldn’t like coffee, even if we do.
Huh? The conclusion is simple, so simple, I wonder why we even study the effects of coffee?
People with a higher sensitivity to bitter caffeine taste drink more coffee. The bitter taste is warming, a real comfort, and we associate great things with this nectar, so we just want more of it, so just plug me up to the largest pot you can find. For Christmas, I want a Tim Hortons gift card.
Technically speaking, bitterness serves as a protector against harmful substances that can kill us. We should be spitting it out.
“You’d expect that people who are particularly sensitive to the bitter taste of caffeine would drink less coffee,” said Marilyn Cornelis, assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Cornelis told Science Daily in November that the opposite results suggest coffee consumers acquire a taste or an ability to detect caffeine due to the learned positive reinforcement elicited by caffeine.
Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant, having the effect of warding off drowsiness and restoring alertness. In clinical terms, caffeine is the world’s most popular psychoactive substance.
Sounds like fun?
The effects of caffeine on the human body have covered everything from its effects on hair follicles all the way to toenail growth, literally head to toe.
Guess what. The studies don’t mean anything because global caffeine consumption is on the rise, and this is due to caffeine being in everything from sports drinks to chocolates. Finlanders are world leaders, drinking 9.6 kg per capita, and Canada ranks 19that 3.4 kg per capita. What does all this mean? I think I’ll have some coffee and ponder it a little more.
I doubt this study will prevent journalists from taking a twice-a-day coffee run, and we journalists certainly don’t need another reason to be bitter, do we? I had to say it!
Richard Tardif is the author of six books. Born in St. John’s, Newfoundland, in 1960, he was raised in Montreal from 1964. He has worked in the military, journalism, publishing, and public speaking, including Toastmasters. His writing has appeared in literary fiction and journalistic contexts. He lives in Montreal, where he continues to write.
