Coffee, Good or Bad?

I have worked a day shift now for the last few years. But, for at least a dozen years, I spent more time than not working 'off-shifts', more midnight-to-daylight than anything else.

My first boss in the military was a crusty old retired NCO (non-commissioned officer) who had come back as a 'silly-villian' (civilian). He was a coffee drinker from way back. His military career, before I knew him, went all the way back to the Vietnam years, where he had spent a few of his early Air Force years. Of course, he liked his mud thick. We'd often just add grounds to the top and brew a new pot rather than waste the old ones.

The first time I was sent out to make coffee, I started with a fresh filter, and started scooping in the coffee grounds. Three or four scoops just didn't quite look like enough. To be on the safe side, I added a few more. To my credit, I did drink a cup of that brew, before it was poured out and we started over.

Over the years, I've drunk probably more than my share of coffee. But, I usually don't drink it around the house - or if I do, no more than one or two cups over a weekend. At work, it flows freely, so I tend to drink more than I should. Honestly, I've never much cared for the taste of coffee, although it's not as bad as it used to be. But, it is flavored. It is warm. It is free. I don't know if it really wakes me up or not, but I do seem to go better after a cup.... and on those rare days when I don't drink one or two, and haven't had enough sleep, I get awfully sluggish.

So, like many people, I come into work each day, put down my stuff, walk back to the break room, fill up a cup, and sip on it for the next half hour or so, then get another. Sometimes I stop there, and if I catch myself going for more, I've learned to drink from the 'decaf' pot (at least, part of the time).

A couple of years ago, I was put on medication for a slight blood pressure problem. Of the things to do to reduce the affects of high blood pressure, was to cut back on salt, lose some weight, eat my three meals a day - never skip (it affects the blood sugar which, in turn, affects the blood pressure), and cut back on coffee, of course. I have lost ten or fifteen pounds in the last couple of years. I have made a habit of eating breakfast - which for a long, long time I had skipped. I rarely add salt to my food, but do occasionally (I agree with the saying, 'anything, in moderation, is okay'). And coffee. Again, I try to drink decaf part of the time. I don't drink a lot at home. But, every day, at work, I still get a cup or two. One thing I've done, though, is to reduce the size of the cup. There's no real point in carrying a 22 ounce coffee cup and drinking it down twice, when a couple of 8-ouncers do the trick just fine.

I rarely drink soda pops, whether you refer to them as cokes, sodas, or pop. I probably do drink a couple per month. I think coffee, and tea, cannot be as bad for me as the alternatives. Even caffeine-free or diet Cokes, Pepsis, etc., have a lot of syrups and other things in them that I have a feeling would gunk up my insides if I over-indulged (ever read the ingredients label on a Diet Dr. Pepper?). For some reason, coffee or tea seem 'clean', in the respect that you take coffee beans or tea leaves, and water, and you mix the two together for a time, and you have a drink. Yes, there's caffeine. But no sugar, no caramel color, or any of the other ingredients that sodas contain. Basically, you have colored water.

I think, if someone starts nagging me about my health, and the ill affects of drinking coffee, I’ll remind them of a couple of things. There are alternatives. Water is good, but..... the others are not. The colas of the world have probably done more damage to the ‘American diet’ than any one product in the history of our country. Gallons and gallons of syrup and phosphoric acid and caramel colors a year cannot be good for a body. I’ll drink my coffee and/or tea, and if I have to deal with the ill effects of that in terms of blood pressure, then I’ll thank my lucky stars that my insides aren’t being rotted by the gallons of other ‘stuff’ that I could be drinking.


Author's note: Of all the blog articles I have written, the "coffee" article, which started out as a whim, has turned into my most popular in terms number of visits from search engines. I'd like to invite comments on it - if you have any thoughts about the good or bad effects of coffee, or about the article, or the site, or anything.