Middle Easterns love their coffee and they love it strong. Brew it by the spoonful in a cup or boil it in a finjan. It’s a great morning treat. And it helps bring on a bowel movement when particulary strong. But how much coffee is good coffee? Can overdoing it ever be bad?

Drinking three to four cups of coffee a day can positively impact health more than it can harm it, according to a recent study. Pour yourself a cup, and read on.

Health researchers looked at more than 200 previous studies and concluded that coffee can be a preventative for certain health conditions including cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, dementia, some cancers, type 2 diabetes and liver disease.  They also linked coffee consumption to lower risk of premature death.

Earlier this year, Spanish researchers reported 20,000 people who drank at least four cups of coffee a day had a 64% lower risk of death than those who never or almost never drank coffee. Two studies published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in July also connected coffee consumption to a longer life.

An editorial by Eliseo Guallar from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Md., said there is no way to know if coffee prevents chronic disease and reduces mortality because there are too many factors to consider such as why people start drinking coffee and what kind of coffee drinks they’re drinking. Are you drinking coffee with half a cup of cream and 4 spoons of sugar? The author did remark that doctors should not recommend drinking coffee to prevent disease and people should not start drinking coffee to improve health.

Consumption of caffeine in other forms was not included as part of the study, as example caffeine-loaded energy drinks or black and white tea.  In 2017, an American teenager died after ingesting the caffeine from a large Diet Mountain Dew soft drink, a cafe latte from McDonald’s, and an energy drink over the course of about two hours.

Cause of death was a “caffeine-induced cardiac event causing a probable arrhythmia,” according to the coroner report.

“Most people can safely take in about 400 milligrams of caffeine daily or about 4 cups of coffee,” according to Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Limits do vary from person to person

While many may worry that their caffeine consumption could put them at risk, the average person who drinks a cup or two of coffee has nothing to worry about.

“For adults it would be uncommon to experience effects of caffeine intoxication at less than 250 milligrams of caffeine (or 2.5 cups of coffee),” said Glatter, adding, “It would typically be more than 12 ounces, but much more common to have the negative effects with greater than 500 milligrams of caffeine.”

He noted that children should limit caffeine consumption, and caffeine and alcohol should not be mixed.

“Mixing caffeine with alcohol is a dangerous practice because it may lead to higher levels of alcohol consumption as the person often believes and feels they are more alert,” he said. “The risk of alcohol poisoning increases as people consume more alcohol because they feel the caffeine will keep them awake and alert.”

Everyone is different, and some may experience side effects after a cup of coffee, while others may be able to drink five cups with no issue. Glatter stated, “It would likely take anywhere from 50-100 cups of coffee to result in a lethal dose of caffeine. That said, pure powdered caffeine can be lethal if a teaspoon of it is consumed at once. The recommended dose of powdered caffeine in this form is just 1/16th of a teaspoon.”

While many may worry their caffeine consumption from coffee and tea could put them at risk, the average person who drinks a cup or two of coffee has nothing to worry about.

The post Is too much coffee good for you? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Where in the world can you drink as much coffee as you like for less than $50 a month? In Tel Aviv, Israel, it turns out. CupsTelAviv has convinced 40 independent businesses in what is arguably the country’s most caffeinated city to allow members of their program to drink as many cups of coffee as they want in a month for just NIS169 ($45). Albeit great for coffee drinkers and businesses, we have to wonder how good this buffet business model is for public health and the environment?

Cappuccinos, lattes, vanilla-flavored goop, or just straight up espresso are all fair game for this new start up, which CupsTelAviv (site is no longer working since Oct. 2020)  CEO Alon Ezer says it is the only loyalty program they know of that goes across a specific chain.

“As far as I know,” he says “this is the only such loyalty program anywhere in the world, and it holds a great promise for not only coffee shops, but for brick-and-mortar retailers of all kinds.”

Back when I was a devoted coffee drinker who couldn’t get past 10am without some serious caffeine coursing through my veins, I used to spend at least $8 a day on a couple of cups of coffee from various venders throughout the country. Multiply eight by 30, and that’s a lot of beans so this Android and iPhone app-driven program would have been great for me.

Ezer insists it’s good for businesses too.

Customers who come in to claim their free coffee are likely to purchase baked goods and other products as well, so the thinking goes, although this assumption underestimates how far a poor hippie will go to stretch what little money they have – and there are loads of those in Tel Aviv.

But too much of a good thing is never great environmentally, particularly if little attention is paid to the source of the coffee offered under this artificially affordable scheme.

Without true dedication to finding fair trade, shade grown coffee, heavy drinkers of this enticing elixir run the risk of supporting businesses that clear large native forests to produce sun-grown coffee. This is not only devastating for biodiversity, but also destroys the carbon sinks so crucial to averting the worst of climate change.

Too much coffee isn’t great for health either.

“The caffeine in coffee is a vaso-dilator; it encourages blood out of the circulatory system into the body tissues and it is this that makes it a stimulant,” we wrote in an earlier post. “The veins then re-constrict which leaves too much blood in the tissues, straining the blood system. The vascular system then needs to work that much harder to avoid edema (often seen as swelling of the ankles).”

While some people are trying to cut back their coffee consumption, Israelis are now encouraged to drink it full steam ahead.

The post CupsTelAviv: All You Can Drink Coffee for Under $50 a Month appeared first on Green Prophet.

On the road, you were always by my side. Together we traveled from New York to Los Angeles, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and we braved mountain passes in the Rockies I never thought I could face. It was harder to find you in Africa and the Middle East. At times, I was too poor to afford your finer self and settled for the instant version of you instead. It always felt like cheating. 

We were inseparable and everybody knew it. Nobody dared come between you and me, especially during our fierce early morning embrace, but in the back of my mind I always knew there would come a time when I’d have to say goodbye.

See, Joe, it’s not healthy to love a thing too much. My passion for you was unreasonable. I would get anxious without you by my side and sometimes, lately, I would even get sick if we weren’t together first thing in the morning.

If I wanted to leave the city to trek in the desert or the mountains, I had to plan ahead: how will I bring Joe? Sometimes it seemed like I couldn’t leave, that I couldn’t even spend a single day without a little taste of your sweet love.

Surely, in real love, there should be a space between?

And every time I brought you into me, I knew I was paying the price. That you were sucking the hydration right out of me and quickening my heart rate, but I couldn’t get enough of you. You were my rebellion. With you I told the world I have the right to destroy myself and I kept after you.

Also Joe, and please don’t be hurt when I tell you this, but the earth pays a price to provide for you. It was innocent enough in the beginning, but you are so powerful that everybody wants, nay needs, your beans in their lives.

I wasn’t jealous, but many workers in Guatemala, Kenya and elsewhere also suffer on your behalf and I can’t forgive myself for that. So now is a time for healing: for the earth, for the workers and yes, even for me.

Trust me, it hasn’t been easy. I can hardly pull myself out of bed and I still feel sick for want of you. You’ve left your mark on my soul (and kidneys, no doubt) and I’ll always wonder if I’ve made the right decision. But I know that the pain of losing you will subside over time.

Although I will miss waking up to your intoxicating smile, it will get easier, and I will be healthy again.

Farewell my beloved Joe. Thank you for the good times we shared.

Image: a cup of coffee with a heart, Shutterstock

The post Ode and Farewell to my Daily Cup(s) of Joe appeared first on Green Prophet.

So it’s not a surprise that after organic hummus, organic falafel and even a vegan burger bar hit Tel Aviv… organic coffee would follow suit.

Loveat cafe in the southern part of Tel Aviv (that just opened another branch on Nachalat Binyamin Street), offers only organic, shade-grown coffee which means that the coffee is both delicious and deliciously better for the environment.

Since LoveEat opened years ago, there are even more organic chains like Cafelix — another coffee shop with a hard to pronounce name. And Cafe Ada Hanina in Jaffa. Probably the best choice in Israel for great coffee and amazing vibes. See barrista below.

Ada says: “We love preparing good fresh coffee for you, every day, practicing direct fare trade, farm 2cup, and then back 2farm!”

Why is organic, shade-grown coffee important? Well, since coffee is one of the most widely consumed products in the world (and dangerously close to global consumption of fossil fuels), anything you can do to make your coffee consumption greener will have a big impact.

Regenerative farming and coffee

Organic coffee farming and regenerative agroculture is important because it doesn’t use pesticides and therefore avoids polluting soil and waterways. Shade-grown coffee is important because although it takes longer for the beans to ripen, no trees and natural habitats need to be cleared in order to grow the coffee.

Traditionally, coffee has been grown under the shade of trees but in order to keep up with modern demand farmers have begun to clear forests so that coffee beans can ripen faster under direct sunlight.

So coffee that is organic + shade grown = winning combination. Stir it up with some organic raw sugar and organic milk in a reusable cup, and that’s even better.

For more information about food, farming:

Israel’s Organic Eggs: On the Political Edge?

Why Doesn’t Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market Compost (or Recycle)?

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