Page 70 - November2026LifeInNaples

Three Cups A Day

Keeps the Doctors Away

I love coffee, I love tea
I love the java jive

And it loves me.

Dave Trecker

hat’s the one thing we can’t
do without? Coffee, of course.
WIt gets us up in the mornings,
kick starts meetings and drives us to the home where the coffee pot is just a few knock-out punch at the supermarket,
finish line at the end of the day. Two- steps away is credited with some of where coffee makes up as much as 20%
thirds of Americans consume it. Average the increase. The U.S. National Coffee of the average grocery bill. We espresso
intake is two cups of Joe per person per Association says 85% of coffee drinkers lovers pay even more. And U.S tariffs are
day. Floridians quaff much more. (We’re now take their Joe at home. pushing prices still higher, with increases
one of the biggest coffee-drinking states Why is it so good for you? Scientists approaching 30%.
in the country.) list the reasons. One is that coffee is How can we get costs down? Might
I’m addicted. I could quit drinking loaded with polyphenolics, chemicals “artificial” coffee be cheaper? Chemists
alcohol tomorrow, cold turkey. But not that scarf up free radicals that promote have made some, crafting it from roasted
coffee. inflammation and damage cells. Another date seeds and caffeine. Trouble is it
And now I have another reason is that caffeine binds to the adenosine tastes really terrible. Biologists tried
to keep drinking it. Last summer, the receptors, freeing lots of feel-good another approach – fermentation of cells
American Heart Association reported dopamine. from coffee plants. That tastes a little
that a carefully controlled study showed But while we love it to death, java has better, but production costs are through
that downing 3 to 5 eight-ounce cups a downsides. Too much makes you jittery the roof. The conclusion? At this writing,
day was linked to a lower risk of heart and irritable and keeps you up at night. there is no substitute for the real thing.
disease, cardio failure, stroke and Type 2 It hit a low in 2018, when California Earlier this year lawmakers went
diabetes. This is a big deal and the most threatened to list it as a carcinogen. That about it differently. They introduced a
compelling scientific evidence yet of real fear was put to bed only to be replaced by bipartisan bill exempting coffee products
health benefits. other worries, the worst being that coffee from tariffs. That tells you something.
There have been other claims over the farming is an environmental disaster. Our lawmakers, who can’t agree on
years. Turns out every two-cup-a-day coffee anything, do agree they can’t function
An extensive study showed a direct drinker requires continuous production without coffee.
relationship between coffee drinking and from some 20 trees. To achieve that I can’t either. So along with millions
longer life. takes relentless fertilization, generating of others, I’m toughing it out and living
Regular intake was associated with an nutrients that trees suck out of the with environmental damage and climate
18% lower risk of developing Alzheimers soil. As a result, plantations eventually change and soaring prices. I’m accepting
or Parkinsons. become barren. Experts say in Brazil, the sins and taking whatever I can get.
An AHA investigation correlated the biggest producer, some 88% of the And I’m never satisfied.
consumption of coffee with reduced coffee land will be lost by 2050. Another Like the song says, “I just can’t get
atrial fibrillation, blood clots and stroke. problem is that harvesting and processing enough of that wonderful stuff!”
Riding the wave of good news, pour huge amounts of CO2 and other
java drinkers are consuming more and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Dr. Trecker is a chemist and retired Pfizer
more of the good stuff. Working at Then there’s the huge jolt in price, a executive living in Naples.

70 www.LifeInNaples.net