Coffee and High Blood Pressure

Summarized by Robert W. Griffith, MD
May 3, 2007

Summary

In a large Dutch 11-year cohort study, low-consumption coffee drinkers (1-3 cups a day) had a higher rate of hypertension than abstainers, and, in women, than those drinking 6 cups a day or more.

Introduction

Many studies have been done to try and determine whether coffee consumption causes high blood pressure, but the results have been inconsistent. Some studies show a positive relationship (i.e. coffee drinking is linked to high blood pressure), some show no relationship, and some show an inverse relationship (i.e. coffee lowers blood pressure). To help in reaching a definite conclusion, researchers in the Netherlands have conducted a long-term cohort study (this is where a group of subjects are studied from a baseline point for a number of years). The relationship of baseline coffee intake to the occurrence of persistent high blood pressure was studied, using repeatedly measured pressures at 5 year intervals over 11 years. The results are published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and summarized below.

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Ethiopia, Starbucks to sign coffee trademark deal

May 4, 2007

ADDIS ABABA -- US coffee giant Starbucks and Ethiopia are to sign an agreement this month to allow the country to brand its specialty coffee in America, ending a long trademark tussle, Oxfam said Thursday.

The British charity said that the two sides had agreed in principle on the deal, of which details will be announced after the signing at a yet unspecified date.

"This is an important step for Ethiopia as it engages with coffee companies on its innovative trade-marking initiative designed to help alleviate poverty," Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America, said in a statement.

Oxfam "welcomed ... news that the government of Ethiopia and the Starbucks Coffee Company have agreed in principle to sign a licensing, distribution, and marketing agreement that recognizes the importance and integrity of Ethiopia's specialty coffee names."

Ethiopia had applied to trademark its most famous coffee names - Sidamo, Harar, and Yigacheffe - to control their use and allow farmers to receive a greater share of the retail price.

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Green Mt. Coffee names new president

The Associated Press
Article Launched: 05/04/2007 11:20:43 AM EDT

Friday, May 4
WATERBURY, Vt. (AP) — Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. has named a new president, the company announced Thursday.

Founder Bob Stiller will be replaced by Lawrence Blanford, a corporate executive with experience in consumer products.

Stiller will continue to serve the company as board chairman. The switch will allow him to concentrate the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Foundation and other corporate responsibility initiatives, the company said.

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Coffee can be good for you, experts say

By Anne Harding
Tue May 1

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Drinking coffee can help ward off type 2 diabetes and may even help prevent certain cancers, according to panelists discussing the benefits -- and risks -- of the beverage at a scientific meeting.

"We're coming from a situation where coffee had a very negative health image," Dr. Rob van Dam of the Harvard School of Public Health, who has conducted studies on coffee consumption and diabetes, told Reuters Health. Nevertheless, he added, "it's not like we're promoting coffee as the new health food and asking people who don't like coffee to drink coffee for their health."

Van Dam participated in a "controversy session" on coffee at the Experimental Biology 2007 meeting underway in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Lenore Arab of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA also took part, presenting results of a review of nearly 400 studies investigating coffee consumption and cancer risk.

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The Caffeine Nap

Source: Tips for Great Naps
From Mark Stibich, Ph.D.

Some people claim that drinking coffee and then taking an immediate nap works well. The caffeine kicks in somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes, waking them up. They feel extra energy from both the nap and the coffee. Researchers in Japan found that subjects using a caffeine nap rated highest in decreased sleepiness and increased productivity when compared to subjects taking a nap and washing their face, or taking a nap and being exposed to bright lights.

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Don't Mess With Our Chocolate!

If you love good coffee, you probably love good chocolate. They are very similar in that they both inspire passion in their devotees. They taste good, make us feel good, and have beneficial health benefits. Some members of the U.S. chocolate industry want the FDA to change rules that would allow other vegetable fats to substitute for cocoa butter. Good idea? I think not. What can you do about it? Go to the website linked below and send your message to the FDA.


"Through the years, consumers have had a passionate love affair with chocolate. Chocolate is an indulgence that everyone can afford, and it provides comfort, pleasure and happiness. It truly is one of the worlds most unique and special foods.

However, if some members of the U.S. Chocolate Industry have their way, it will negatively change the quality of chocolate you love. Their plan is to change the basic formula of chocolate in order to use vegetable fat substitutes in place of cocoa butter, and to use milk substitutes in the place of nutritionally superior milk. These changes will have adverse effects on the eating, physical and nutritional quality of chocolate, and beg the question: What consumer benefit is associated with implementing these changes? The answer is none."

DontMessWithOurChocolate.com

Oxfam coffee 'harms' poor farmers

Caroline Overington
The Australian
April 28, 2007

TWO Melbourne academics have lodged formal complaints against Oxfam Australia over the sale of Fairtrade coffee, saying it should not be promoted as helping to lift Third World producers out of poverty because growers are paid very little for their beans.

Tim Wilson, a research fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs, and Sinclair Davidson, professor of institutional economics at RMIT University, have asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to investigate Oxfam, saying it is guilty of misleading or deceptive conduct under the Trade Practices Act.

Mr Wilson said there was evidence that Fairtrade products could do more harm than good for coffee producers in undeveloped nations. He cited reports alleging producers had been charged thousands of dollars to become certified Fairtrade providers and some labourers received as little as $3 a day.

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