“How do you like your coffee?” he asked with a smile. “Sweet, just like you,” she replied jokingly. Pouring the hot, steaming liquid into a hand-painted mug, his hands were soon a blur as he endlessly added one spoonful of sugar after another…
Now, the above might not win a prize for fiction, and it may seem extremely far-fetched. However, if you had bought a pure fruit smoothie instead of that aromatic coffee, you could be swallowing up to ten teaspoons of the sweet stuff. One study even showed that 80% of commercially-produced smoothies contained more sugar and calories than a can of Coca Cola!
The survey said…
Well that depends on who you ask and what you ask them. You’ll no doubt have read or heard many stories emphasising that coffee might not be good for you. Much of the research that such suggestions are based on comes from what is termed “case control studies”.
Here, one group of people who enjoy coffee would be matched against another who don’t drink it. Now, if you are in the former, and without casting aspersions on how you live your life, it’s been shown that you are slightly more likely to have other “bad” habits (such as smoking and drinking) which might skew the results.
An emerging truth
Prospective cohort studies, on the other hand, examine much larger groups of people over much longer periods of time. At the start, each will be confirmed as disease-free. Then, for example, their drinking habits will be noted and then assessed throughout many years. One such study collected data from well over 100,000 people for more than two decades. If you are a coffee drinker, permit yourself a small cheer, because…
The results suggested that good old coffee is, well, quite good for you. Like everything else, when taken in moderation of course. No one can say for certain why. One possible reason is that coffee contains many plant compounds (known as flavonoids) which are proved to have antioxidant effects. Caffeine is also known to be a mild anti-depressant which increases levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, which both help to improve your mood.
In fact, the mortality rates for those who drank coffee were slightly lower than for people who didn’t. The results suggested that “in moderation” is likely to be between one and five cups per day.
Smoothies of the world should prepare to tremble
Sugar-rich, as we’ve already noted, but there are those who will still defend them. You can probably even hear “five a day” being shouted in the background. However, peeling off the skin and then pulping the fibre simply means that many of the potential health benefits have probably already been lost. Mothers who wanted you to eat the peel of an apple or not to scrape that carrot probably did know what they were talking about after all.
The perfect solution
So, feel free to munch on an apple or banana and then drink a flavoursome mug of your favourite coffee. By the way, Tassimo are currently offering a terrific bundle of five prime choices of Kenco and Carte Noire! Cheers!
Are you a fan of coffee? What is your go to coffee drink?
Do you like to go on coffee dates?
*In partnership with Tassimo
