Deanna keeps sending me emails about the benefits of coffee, so I figured I would help make the case for coffee on my blog as well :)

Barbara Quinn On Nutrition

So, when did you start drinking coffee?" I asked our youngest daughter after she had worked on a guest ranch in Colorado for a year. "When I had to start work at 6:45 in the morning and there was 8 inches of snow on the ground and the temperature was five degrees," she said.

Good answer. Coffee is the most abundantly consumed stimulant in the world. But it was not invented by a modern sage named Starbuck. According to registered dietitian Amy Brown, "Coffee was probably discovered in Ethiopia around the 3rd century A.D. when an Arabian goat herder named Kaldi noticed that his goats became particularly frolicsome after eating certain berries." Coffee berries, or beans, do have some perks. They contain caffeine, a central nervous system stimulant that increases mental alertness and temporarily fires up metabolism. Caffeine can enhance athletic performance by helping the body burn fat for energy during long bouts of exercise. In fact, the International Olympic Committee considers more than a moderate amount of caffeine in athletes a "doping agent."

Excess coffee can create a "latte" problems. Caffeine arouses the heart to beat faster and raises blood pressure. It stimulates stomach acids and can disturb your sleep. Too much coffee mixed with too little calcium in your diet can pour the strength out your bones. Strong discussions continue to brew over coffee. Some evidence links coffee drinking to a lower risk for type 2 diabetes. Other studies find that coffee and caffeine raise homocysteine levels -- a risk factor for heart disease.

The issue grinds down to this: How coffee affects you depends on how much and how often you drink it. Most experts recommend we keep our intake of caffeine to less than 300 milligrams a day. Here's the breakdown:

Brewed coffee contains the most caffeine, about 140 milligrams per cup. Instant coffee contains about 80 milligrams per cup. Tea contains 40 to 50 milligrams of caffeine per cup. Cola drinks contain 40 to 100 milligrams of caffeine per 12-ounce can. Energy drinks like Red Bull contain about 120 milligrams caffeine in 12 ounces. Caffeine-free coffee is not... entirely. Most decaf coffees still contain about 3 percent of their original caffeine content.

If you're healthy, one or two cups of regular coffee a day should not pose a problem and may even have some beneficial effects. Be cautious with coffee and other caffeinated foods if you have high blood pressure or other heart ailments.

Source: Deanna, no link to original article

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