By Lee Scott

Good news, coffee is back in good graces with the “experts”. According to the Harvard Heart Letter, March 2015, Coffee is actually good for you. It is not just the caffeine which gives us the that great morning jolt, but coffee is also filled with other components called polyphenols which are beneficial  to our hearts. These antioxidants are making all the headlines now. This new report is contrary to what we were told in the past. Evidently the medical research done in the 1970s and 1980s did not account for poor choices like a sedentary lifestyle and/or cigarette smoking, so coffee got thrown into the “bad for you” category. It has taken forty years for coffee to be redeemed.

Personally, I have ignored what the experts said about coffee. No one was ever going to discourage me from drinking my cup of coffee. I am a devoted coffee drinker. Several cups early in the morning and then one cup mid-morning; occasionally one cup  after dinner.

My love of coffee came from my New England roots. It started at an early age. I grew up on all forms of coffee. We drank coffee syrup in our milk instead of chocolate syrup. We ate coffee ice cream cones and enjoyed coffee frosting on our birthday cakes. During the summer we would drink our iced coffee. The idea of someone telling me to limit my coffee was unacceptable.

I am personally comforted knowing that employees working at night, like doctors, nurses and police officers have coffee to keep them awake. You probably noticed that the vending machines in hospitals and at the rest stops along major highways all have coffee available too.

It is amazing though the number of foods and drinks that we have been warned about through the years. Butter and eggs have only recently been put back into the “good for you” food category. And of course there were the big ones, red dye #2 and cyclamates never made it back into the food chain; although saccharin was eventually saved. If you do an internet search on “bad foods for you to eat” the list contains ketchup, popcorn, potato chips and sodas. Coffee is not the only product that has gone on this crazy roller coaster. The list of foods to avoid “according to the experts” is huge. So next year if the word comes out that coffee is bad once again, I’m sorry, I will still be sitting at City Java or Common Ground enjoying my cappuccino.