A cup of coffee

By Henrylito D. Tacio

WHAT is that drink produced from the roasted beans of the coffee plant? Coffee, that's what. The word "coffee" may have been derived from the Ethiopian "keffa" or the Turkish equivalent word "qahveh." The Arabs call the beverage "qahwa," which means "strength."

The coffee's use as a drink spread through Arabia in the 13th century and it became popular in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. In the Philippines, coffee was brought by the Spanish friars in 1740. Since then, the Filipinos have become coffee drinkers.

Coffee is one of the main sources of caffeine. The US Food and Drug Administration classified caffeine as "generally recognized as safe."

For years the public was warned of the dangers of coffee. In one well-publicized "New England Journal of Medicine" study released in 1981, researchers found a link between coffee and pancreatic cancer. But when at least seven other studies failed to back up that finding, those results had to be retracted.

Now, more than 19,000 dietary caffeine studies have been done, and many experts agree that moderate daily caffeine intake - 300 to 400 milligrams, about three to four cups of coffee - is not harmful.

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