A couple of days ago, the temperature was around 20°C. I woke up this morning to see it is snowing outside. I guess the temperature at my place is dropping as fast as crypto is. There is, however, one thing that makes any morning just a bit better. It is a cup of hot black coffee. Liquid love. There were times when I had to drink tea instead of coffee and while it was nice, it just wasn't what it needed to be. Something was missing. I guess I am a coffee person and tea just won't do the job for me. How about you? What do you prefer, coffee or tea?
When it comes to choosing our morning beverage, we all have our preferences with known or unknown reasons behind them. Today we will take a little journey together and learn something about them and even see what science has to say about the topic. Spoiler alert: the answer just may be in your DNA...
A coffee tree can grow to more than 9 meters high and each tree is covered with green leaves growing opposite each other in pairs with coffee cherries along the branches. You can see flowers, green and ripe fruit all at the same time because it grows in a continuous cycle. The tree can live up to 100 years but is the most productive between the ages of 7 and 20 when it produces 2 pounds of green beans. This tree likes mild temperatures, shaded sun, frequent rain, and rich soil so we have a so-called Coffee Belt that is in the Equatorial zone located between latitudes 25 degrees North and 30 degrees South.
Experts estimate that there are from 25 to 100 species of coffee plants and the genus was first described in the 18th century by the Swedish botanist, Carolus Linneaus. Botanists still disagree on the exact classification since coffee plants range widely from small shrubs to tall trees and are even different in color but to a coffee consumer, there are two important coffee species; Arabica and Robusta. Either one of those can be used to make mine (maybe yours) favorite drink that is made by brewing the beans which are actually roasted seeds of the fruit called coffee cherry. In 95% of cherries, there are two beans but there is a natural mutation in 5% of them where there is only one seed present (called peaberry). Those individual seeds are sometimes manually sorted out for a special sale since some people believe they are sweeter and more flavorful than standard beans.
Every coffee bean has a unique blend of organic compounds such as carbohydrates, amino acids, fiber, pectin, minerals, antioxidants, and caffeine that are naturally occurring but there are approximately 1000 compounds that are formed during brewing. Some of them are strong antioxidants (chemicals that fight free radicals and protect cells from damage) including chlorogenic acids (CGA) which is beneficial in modulating sugar metabolism, controlling blood pressure, and possibly defending against heart disease and cancer. One cup may contain 70 – 350 mg of it.
Difference bewteen Arabica and Robusta
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| . | Arabica | Robusta |
|---|
| %of world market | 70% | 30% |
| Bean | flatter and more elongated | rounder and smaller |
| Tree | 610 to 1830 meters high, a heavy frost will kill them, costly to cultivate | heartier and more resistant to disease and parasites, cheaper to cultivate, able to withstand warmer climates |
| Caffeine | lower in coffeine | 50-60% more caffeine |
| Area | Yemen, Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, China | Central and Western Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam, Brazil, lower altitudes than Arabica |
History dates back to the 15th century
While there are a lot of myths about coffee originating from Ethiopia (one is about a 9th century Ethiopian goat-herder Kaldi), there is no solid evidence to support them. The earliest evidence of coffee drinking is from the early 15th century, in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen. By the 16th century, it had reached the rest of the Middle East, South India, Persia, Turkey, Horn of Africa, and northern Africa. Then it spread to the Balkans, Italy and to the rest of Europe. At the end of her journey, it came to South East Asia and finally to America. The word coffee originates from the Arabic qahwah that originally meant wine. They used the beverage as an aid to concentration and as a kind of spiritual intoxication.
When it comes to scientific research, I am constantly surprised by how much research has been done on things that we enjoy. This makes me really happy because research on food, sex, sleep, fun, and beverages comes up with new and interesting findings with almost every day. Coffee is no different. There have been many papers published and almost entire scientific community agrees that coffee has great benefits for our health. U.S. Dietary Guidelines even recommends coffee as part of a healthy lifestyle.
From liver health to living longer...
The strongest associations to coffee consumption include benefits regarding cancer, longevity, cardiovascular disease, liver health, diabetes, and stroke. It all started back in 1980 when Norwegian researchers reported that coffee seemed to fend off liver disease. Ever since then, coffee was the inspiration for many investigations. U.S. researchers reported in 2012. (and later studies in Japan, Scotland, and Finland confirmed) how people who drink two or more cups of coffee a day live longer than those who don’t, after accounting for behavioral differences. You can read the entire research, in which 402260 people participated, here:
Association of Coffee Drinking with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality by Neal D. Freedman, Ph.D., Yikyung Park, Sc.D., Christian C. Abnet, Ph.D., Albert R. Hollenbeck, Ph.D., and Rashmi Sinha, Ph.D.
For many people, coffee still has a bad reputation especially when it comes to talking about stomach ulcers, acid reflux and the heart flutter known as atrial fibrillation. The interesting thing is that these things are not present in large population studies. Read about interesting findings here:
No Association of Coffee Consumption with Gastric Ulcer, Duodenal Ulcer, Reflux Esophagitis, and Non-Erosive Reflux Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study of 8,013 Healthy Subjects in Japan by Takeshi Shimamoto, Nobutake Yamamichi , Shinya Kodashima, Yu Takahashi, Mitsuhiro Fujishiro, Masashi Oka, Toru Mitsushima, Kazuhiko Koike
Results of that study showed how there is no noticeable association between the degree of coffee consumption and upper-gastrointestinal disorders. It also showed no significant association with gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer, non-erosive reflux disease or reflux esophagitis.
CC0 image, Pixabay, author: stokpic
As I have already mentioned, there are many studies on this topic, here are those that I have found the most interesting and recommend you take a look at...
Post-menopausal breast cancer: Coffee Intake Decreases Risk of Postmenopausal Breast Cancer: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis on Prospective Cohort Studies
Parkinson’s: Caffeine Intake, Smoking, and Risk of Parkinson Disease in Men and Women
Colon cancer in women: Coffee drinking and colorectal cancer and its subsites: A pooled analysis of 8 cohort studies in Japan
Depression: Coffee, caffeine, and risk of depression among women
Liver cancer: Protective effects of coffee consumption following liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma
Blood pressure: The effect of coffee on blood pressure and cardiovascular disease in hypertensive individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Diabetes: Coffee components inhibit amyloid formation of human islet amyloid polypeptide in vitro: possible link between coffee consumption and diabetes mellitus
Stroke: Coffee Consumption and Risk of Stroke in Women
Longevity: Association of Coffee Drinking With Mortality by Genetic Variation in Caffeine Metabolism: Findings From the UK Biobank
When it comes to the variety of coffee and coffee-like beverages, your choice may seem hard. You can choose between espresso, cappuccino, mocha, home-made, decaf, flavored and so on. My favorite one is home-made, black with no sugar or milk, just plain coffee that needs to be strong. According to research, my preference is due to the passiveness of my PDSS2 gene because the more active the gene, the less coffee people drink.
Genetic makeup controling coffee consumption...
In 2016, researchers tracked the coffee-drinking habits of people from Italy and the Netherlands and found how the activity of a gene that lowers levels of caffeine-degrading enzymes in the liver is associated with the amount of coffee people drink. PDSS2 limits low-level caffeine intake but there is also CYP1A2 that controls coffee consumption habits at higher caffeine doses. Oh and, you would be be wrong to presume how Italians drink more coffee than Dutch people. Dutch, on average, drink more than five cups of filtered coffee per day while Italians drink about two cups of espresso and since Dutch are enjoying their coffee in larger cups, they consume about three times as much caffeine per cup as the Italians do. You can read the full report here:
Non-additive genome-wide association scan reveals a new gene associated with habitual coffee consumption by Nicola Pirastu, Maarten Kooyman, Antonietta Robino, Ashley van der Spek, Luciano Navarini, Najaf Amin, Lennart C. Karssen, Cornelia M Van Duijn & Paolo Gasparini
Just a couple of days ago, November 15th to be exact, we got some new information about why some people prefer tea and others, like me, choose coffee instead. Researchers have found that people with a version of a gene that increases sensitivity to the bitter flavor of caffeine are coffee drinkers. The more sensitive we are to that flavor, the bigger the chance is we would crave it. Those that are less sensitive to caffeine’s bitter taste, are tea drinkers but still have other genes that increase sensitivity to the bitterness of other chemicals.
Caffeine, quinine, and other chemicals...
Researchers in Australia, the United States, and England examined more than 400,000 DNA sample variants of genes involved in detecting the bitter taste of the caffeine, quinine, and propylthiouracil (PROP). They compared that data with the information on how much coffee or tea people are drinking daily. For long we had an opinion on how people who are genetically inclined to taste bitter more intensely might avoid bitter beverages, turns out that could not be further from the truth. People who had the highest genetic score for detecting caffeine’s bitterness were 20 percent more likely to be heavy coffee drinkers than those without the increased sensitivity.
You can read the full report here:
Understanding the role of bitter taste perception in coffee, tea and alcohol consumption through Mendelian randomization by Jue-Sheng Ong, Daniel Liang-Dar Hwang, Victor W. Zhong, Jiyuan An, Puya Gharahkhani, Paul A. S. Breslin, Margaret J. Wright, Deborah A. Lawlor, John Whitfield, Stuart MacGregor, Nicholas G. Martin & Marilyn C. Cornelis
So... What kind of genes do you have? Are you enjoying your coffee or do you prefer drinking tea instead? What is your favorite type? Coffee has always been a great companion of mine and while I tend to drink it black, I do enjoy chocolate flavored ice-coffee in the summer and there is something special in that Irish coffee that makes my smile just a bit bigger.
CC0 image, Pixabay, author: Alexas_Fotos, adapted by me
To read more about this topic, check out these REFERENCES:
Antioxidants in Coffee from coffeechemistry.com
Coffee Chemistry: Inside A Complex Little Bean from coffeeandme.org
Coffee Around the World from ncausa.org
Nutrition In Coffee from coffeeandme.org
Unlocking Coffee's Chemical Composition: Part 2 from coffeechemistry.com
History of coffee from wikipedia
What is coffee from ncausa.org
Coffee reveals itself as an unlikely elixir from sciencenews.org
Coffee, Caffeine & Health from ncausa.org
Thank (or blame) your genes for ability to handle java jolt from sciencenews.org
Coffee or tea? Your preference may be written in your DNA from sciencenews.org
Image sources AND LICENCES in order of appearance:
- all images used in this post are free for commercial use, they are royalty free with the links to original images provided under them
- line divider that I use is from FREE CLIPART LIBRARY, and is here
- title pictures are made by me using the CC0 images from pixabay that can be found here and here
- my bitmoji avatar was created on https://www.bitmoji.com/, visit the site to create yourown
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