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The Coffee Spin: A Great Source of Anti-oxidants?

Apparently it was a relative of Sigmund Freud who became a consultant to all of the Fortune 500 companies who invented and perfected “spin” for public relations and marketing applications. I can’t recall his name, but I believe that he passed away some time ago. I wondered about that when I read the headlines about coffee having become the leading source of antioxidants in the American diet. Although the master spin doctor is no longer with us, a true expert, a master in his own right at the art of “spinning” must have been responsible for the presentation of this story! Did it make you think that coffee was good for you? Did it make you think that you needed to drink even more than you already do? If so, the spin doctors have masterfully accomplished their work in you. Not to be outdone or left behind by the studies showing the health benefits of green tea, someone with money and interests in the coffee industry figured out they could hitch a ride on the same bandwagon. They started with the facts they had to work with which were:

1. Americans love their coffee
2. They drink lots of coffee
3. Coffee contains small amounts of anti-oxidants
4. The standard American diet is relatively poor in anti-oxidants

From this base, someone funded a study which demonstrated that "Americans" chief source of anti-oxidants is coffee!”

Placing the headline just so made it appear that coffee was a health food, and that it would be wise to drink more of it. In reality the study really illustrates the dismal nutritional status of the average American since coffee is a relatively nutrient-poor “food”. Also, conveniently ignored in all the hype of the press was the fact that there is plenty of scientific and clinical evidence that coffee is a health destroying chemical. My direct clinical experience (with many scientific studies backing these up) suggests that caffeine is implicated in all of the following conditions:

1. Chronic fatigue
2. Sleep disorders
3. High blood pressure (from loss of vessel elasticity)
4. Cardiac arrythmias
5. Adrenal exhaustion
6. Blood sugar disturbances (both hypoglycemia and diabetes)
7. Mineral depletion and dehydration
8. Mental and nervous conditions
9. Weight gain
10. Promotes addictive behaviors toward coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, food in general, and sweets in particular.
11. Learning and behavioral problems in children and teens
12. PMS
13. Various types of headaches
14. Gastritis and Irritable Bowel syndrome
15. Elevated insulin levels
16. Elevated cholesterol and homocysteine levels
17. Increased risk of stroke, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and heart disease

In view of the above, I am not sure how the spin and the hype associated with the few lonely anti-oxidants in coffee can be ethically justified. Perhaps those that control the media are in turn controlled by advertisers with money to make from swaying the public opinion. I constantly remind my readers to be extremely skeptical about what they read in the newspapers or see on TV. There is no better support for this viewpoint than the current effort to make coffee into a health food. When you take into account the nutrient density, cost, and adverse effects of caffeine, I can’t think of a worse source of anti-oxidants for the average American consumer.