Defenses

Coffee Aroma May Awaken body's Defenses
By Sally Squires
The Washington Post

The aroma of a freshly brewed cup of coffee may tantalize your taste buds. Now it seems possible it may - repeat, may - be good for you too.

Coffee beans contain more than 1,000 chemical compounds, including some that are antioxidants, said Takayuki Shibamoto, professor of environmental toxicology at the University of California, Davis. Antioxidants act as scavengers in the body, picking up undesirable compounds that can cause cell damage. Vitamins C and E are antioxidants.

The brewing of coffee, regular or decaffeinated, produces an additional 300 chemical compounds that also are antioxidants, Shibamoto reported to the American Chemical Society's annual meeting. Whether inhaling these substances will produce the same beneficial effects as eating foods high in antioxidants is unknown.

Shibamoto's next step will be to test the effects of coffee aroma on laboratory animals. Preliminary lab tests suggest some of the antioxidants in the aroma remain effective for 30 days.

Shibamoto said that these findings "don't mean that drinking lots of coffee is good for your health. There are some very undesirable things in coffee, too. You have to be aware of that, too."

Didn't everything sound great until that last line? Party Pooper! (editorial comment)

Last updated Saturday, April 05, 2008

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