Sunday, March 9, 2008

All about Coffee...



Sipping from the cup of coffee, I realised that drinking coffee had become my everyday routine already. Every morning, I will drink coffee if not I will feel like something is missing from my life. I've asked around and found out that not many people of my age likes coffee. Since I like coffee so much, I might as well do some research about it. The results that I've got is quite amusing.

Advantages of coffee

It had been shown to prevent diabetes, liver damage and gallstones, plus it may also improve physical endurance and pump up your brain power.

"Not only is coffee not bad for our health, as once believed, coffee may actually have a healthy protective effect," says Cheryl Rock, researcher and professor of nutrition at UCSD School of Medicine.

"When I see patients, I look carefully at what they eat and drink," he says. "I find that the elderly patients who are the healthiest and doing the best have always had a cup or two of coffee every morning." -Dr. Ken Fujioka

It's long time since I talked about something serious. The other posts is about killing bugs and lizards but this is totally different. Soon we moved on to the disadvantages. I only taken a few out of the whole chunks of texts. If you are interested in reading out more and start drinking coffee, then please read THIS. If you study Biology, it would be easier to understand though.



Disadvantages of coffee

Short term effects

Caffeine is a drug that has been widely used for centuries. It acts as a mild stimulant to the central nervous system and helps in reducing drowsiness and fatigue. However, regular use may lead to "habituation" or "addiction".

Besides this, caffeine also temporarily increases the heartbeat, blood pressure, and stimulates the action of the lungs; increases basal metabolic rate, and promotes urine production; it also relaxes the muscles, notably the bronchial muscles. Caffeine is used in treating migraine, either alone or in combination.

People who drink only one cup of coffee can also experience caffeine withdrawal symptoms if they miss their morning wakeup cup. The degree of the withdrawal symptoms will depend on your general physical well-being at the time, the amount of caffeine you are missing out on, and your sensitivity.

Some noted side-effects of drinking too much caffeine include:

Sleep disturbances.

Dehydration due to frequent urination.

Restlessness and jitters due to increase in the adrenaline hormone.

Nausea.

Headache.

Tense muscles.

Heartburn.

Cardiac arrhythmias. (Don't know is what)

Note that these side-effects are a result of consuming too much caffeine. If you are experiencing these symptoms, consult your doctor. You might not need to quit your caffeine intake completely-just cut down.

To speed up the withdrawal process, drink lots of water to flush the caffeine from your system and take extra sleep.

Wow! that's alot! The reason why I want to start off with advantages and disadvantages is because I want to let people know it's usefulness and harmfulness. It's totally up to you to stand on which side. There is no one who can force you into it. Stating the facts, I think drinking coffee can only be good if you do not drink it excessively.



YaY! now we can finally moved on to better topics about coffee!

THINGS TO BE NOTED FOR DRINKING COFFEE :

In order to drink coffee healthily, some important points to be noted are as follows:

The best time for drinking coffee, as indicated by doctor's investigation, are: 4 pm- 6 pm in summer and autumn, and 3 pm-5 pm in spring and winter because these are the times when people are most tired.

Try not to drink more than 5 cups of coffee (about 150 ml per cup).
Do not drink before sleep in order to prevent suffering from insomnia.

Drink coffee in the morning to keep your mind clear and awake, but do not drink on an empty stomach, in order to prevent from hurting the stomach.

Do not smoke or drink beer immediately after drinking coffee, because this will accelerate the blood's circulation and increase the burden to the heart.

Do not drink coffee if you are breast feeding, because caffeine can be mixed in with milk and be absorbed by the infant.

Do not drink coffee that is too thick, as it makes people more impatient and reduce the ability of comprehension.

It is better to add in some cream when drinking coffee, in order to mitigate the stimulation to stomach. Also the amount of sugar added should be noted in order to avoid obesity.

For the perfect cup of coffee to be tasty, the selection of coffee bean is most important. Also the quality and temperature of water, the method of extraction and processing all contribute to the taste of coffee.



Instant coffee

Although it has a long shelf life, instant coffee quickly spoils if it is not kept dry. Instant coffee differs in taste to ground coffee preparations. In particular, the percentage of caffeine in instant coffee is less, and bitter flavor components are more evident. The lowest quality coffee beans are often used in the production of instant coffee (the best beans are usually kept to be sold whole) and sometimes other unwanted residues from the harvest are used in the production process.



Mcdonald VS Starbucks







This is another threat for Starbucks

McDonald's to open 14,000 coffee bars -- what can Starbucks do?

It thinks this will add $1 billion in sales each year. According to The Wall Street Journal, "locations will install coffee bars with 'baristas' serving cappuccinos, lattes, mochas and the Frappe, similar to Starbucks' ice-blended Frappuccino."

Investors will fairly ask whether Starbucks can do anything to stop the erosion of its customer base as coffee drinkers move to other outlets like Dunkin Donuts and McDonald's. Starbucks's shares have lost nearly half of their value over the past 52 weeks and now trade at just a little over $18.

The coffee chain has tried adding its own breakfast food, but most of its stores open at 6 AM while many McDonald's locations are open 24 hours and have a much broader selection of food along with a larger number of locations.

Starbucks at $15? It is starting to look that way.

Personal thoughts: I think Starbucks looks better in terms of presentation but Mcdonald is cheaper in terms of price.

And to end it, some pictures of Coffee-related things.



Love coffee



Coffee beans<--- ---> Coffee berries



Dog in starbucks cup?



Asking mirror: Who's the most beautiful girl in the world?


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And lastly,

by Anonymous at 10:55 AM |