Can't Cure Common Cold, But Coffee Benefits Perk

Its caffeine can bring jitters and its color can stain teeth, yet moderate consumption of coffee an all-world beverage if ever there was one is being shown to have generally positive and protective effects on the emergence of disease conditions according to this month's issue of Food Technology magazine.

In its regular Food, Medicine & Health column, Food Technology reports that recent studies of coffee in combination with reviews of research gathered over the past 30 years reveal that consumption improves glucose regulation and lowers the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, among other favorable effects.

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Figaro coffee wants to expand abroad

By Raju Gopalakrishnan
Reuters
Last updated 05:48pm (Mla time) 01/25/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- A coffee called wild boar in a shop named after the lead character in a Mozart opera?

That's what happening in a highly successful chain of cafes in the Philippines, whose owner now wants to expand to cities as far apart as Beijing and Istanbul.

Figaro Coffee, with 55 outlets in the Philippines against the 106 of market leader Starbucks, already has two shops in China -- in Shanghai.

"We are looking at Beijing this year," President and Chief Executive Pacita Juan said in an interview on Thursday. "We want to be there before the (2008) Olympics."

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Americans For Drug Free Youth Launches National Anti 'Meth Coffee' Campaign

Law Needed to Stop Immoral and Scandalous Trademarks to Market Products

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Americans For Drug Free Youth (AFDFY) launches national anti "Meth Coffee" campaign. Starting today, AFDFY begins its campaign across the country to encourage action by all Americans asking Congress to introduce and pass a law that would stop immoral and scandalous trademarks to be used when marketing a product. Present trademark laws and state laws forbid the use of scandalous and immoral words to be used in a trademark and or business name.

Back in October of 2006, James T. Kirby attempted to register a trademark "cocaine" for use in an energy drink, that trademark was remanded back to the examining attorney who initially approved the trademark cocaine for publication has now requested that the Trial Trademark and Appeal remand the case down for further examination by the attorney (himself). The Notice of Opposition was filed by Americans For Drug Free Youth and Students, Matthew Delaney, Jessica Fajfar, Angela Simmons, Irina Vinogradsky, and Mike Wendolowski, are members of the Progressive Intellectual Property Law Association.

AFDFY co founder Steven Steiner says we are weighing our options but it is clear now we must have a federal law that stops these immoral and scandalous names from being used in any fashion. Mr. Steiner is calling on all Americans to please sign the petition that is automatically sent to their local Congressman, Senator and the President to call for such a law.

National Anti " Meth Coffee" Campaign petition

Americans For Drug Free Youth was founded by two fathers that lost their children to drug overdoses. The mission of AFDFY is to fight for drug policy that protects our children. Web site: http://actionstudio.org/?go=2675

Source: Americans For Drug Free Youth


CONTACT: Steven Steiner, +1-607-687-4151, or Keith Thompson,
+1-910-540-5266, both of Americans For Drug Free Youth

Web site: http://www.afdfy.org/ http://actionstudio.org/?go=2675

Coffee could hold the secret to curing male baldness

By ANI
Tuesday January 23, 04:01 PM

London, Jan 23 (ANI): For all those men who would do anything to stop their hairlines from receding, it might just be time to give hair weaving, toupees and wigs the boot, for a new research has found that coffee could hold the key for making their woe disappear.

The study, carried out by a team of boffins led by Dr Tobias Fischer at the University of Jena in Germany, found that caffeine stimulates the growth tiny follicles, the tiny sacs in the scalp from which hair grows, in men who are starting to lose their hair.

The researchers noted that caffeine helps slow baldness in men by blocking the effects of a chemical known to damage hair follicles.

However, before you reach for that cup of coffee, you have to know that boffins estimate that up to 60 cups a day would be the amount needed for significant amounts to reach follicles in the scalp.

The boffins are nonetheless, optimistic that caffeine can be a "promising candidate for hair growth stimulation."

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The coffee connection

Brewed in Louisville, harvested in Guatemala, fair-trade coffee has effect on farmers, environment

By Chris Kenning
The Courier-Journal

NAHUALA, GUATEMALA

Pascual Perechu threaded his way up a footpath shaded by banana and avocado trees, away from his mountain village dotted with rickety houses, pecking chickens, barefoot children and smoky cooking fires.

His sandals slapped the dirt as he walked to his daily destination — dozens of 8-foot-tall coffee trees scattered under a tropical forest canopy full of birds.

Perechu, a 54-year-old Mayan farmer, has spent a lifetime of long days tending, picking and hauling coffee from his tiny plot, ideal for its 3,500-foot elevation, shade and volcanic soil.

Coffee is big business globally, yet most of the small, isolated farmers growing more than half the world's coffee get, on average, just 4 to 8 cents from a $2 cup of retail coffee.

Perechu, however, has a connection to Louisville that is helping to change that.

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Review: Coffee generally positive

CHICAGO, Jan. 22 Moderate drinking of coffee is being shown to have generally positive and protective effects on the emergence of disease conditions, say U.S. researchers.

Food Technology reports that recent studies of coffee in combination with reviews of research gathered over the past 30 years reveal that consumption improves glucose regulation and lowers the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, among other favorable effects.

Many negative health myths about coffee drinking may now be transformed into validated health benefits, says Roger A. Clemens, a functional food expert with the Institute of Food Technologists and nutritional biochemist. Scientific evidence now suggests that moderate coffee consumption -- 3 to 5 cups a day -- may be associated with reduced risks of certain disease conditions.Another area of coffee's positive affect on the body is its possible cancer-protective properties, possibly due to its naturally occurring and brewing-produced antioxidants, according to Clemens.

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Costly coffee: High-end home brews take a hefty bite out of your wallet

T. SUSAN CHANG
For The Associated Press

In an era when $5 fancy coffee drinks are the norm, a growing number of people are willing to invest $1,000 or more to make the perfect cup of coffee at home.
The Olympian - Click Here

Seduced by the gleaming, multi-levered, counter-hogging machines that have begun crowding catalogs and showrooms, more people are willing to spend more money in pursuit of that perfect cup of Joe.

Consider this the centerpiece of the consumer revolution in coffee. A generation ago, a cup of coffee meant a bottomless mug at the diner or a spoonful of instant.

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China's Starbucks brew-haha seen as storm in a coffee cup

BEIJING (AFP) - Norwegian tourist Ron Lidao sympathises with calls to oust US coffee giant Starbucks from China's historic Forbidden City, but his resolve wavered after a walk through the vast complex on a chilly day.

"It's out of place and shouldn't be here -- but I'm sure glad it is," Lidao said as he and his wife Inga warmed up with two coffees in Starbucks' tiny outlet there on Friday.

They were among several visitors to the Forbidden City, foreign and local, who viewed a public debate over the consumer icon's presence in one of China's greatest historical sites as a bit of a storm in a coffee cup.

Popular Chinese television presenter Rui Chenggang recently revived the long-simmering debate with an online campaign accusing Starbucks of leaving a commercial stain on the former home of China's emperors since opening the outlet in 2000.

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Scientists identify genes for perfect coffee beans

By Chris Mercer

19/01/2007 - Scientists from Brazil and France have moved a step closer to creating the perfect cup of coffee after identifying key genes that can affect flavour in the beans.

The team, from CIRAD in France and Brazil's Agricultural Institute of Paraná, says it has pin-pointed the genes responsible for sucrose accumulation in coffee beans.

Sucrose is thought to play a vital role in the taste of coffee by releasing flavour and aroma during roasting.

The discovery, which is the result of five years' research, may pave the way for higher quality coffee, potentially widening the added value sector of the coffee market and so improving earnings in the supply chain.

One enzyme, sucrose synthetase, is responsible for sucrose accumulation in arabica coffee beans, the team found. The enzyme exists in the form of two different proteins and is coded within two different genes.

Further testing found that the first gene controlled sucralose accumulation in coffee beans during ripening and picking, while the second was involved in sucrose breakdown during the roasting process.

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