link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2211112,00.html

via: LewRockwell.com

No? Let me put the coffee on . . .

By Rajeev Syal
Scientists have discovered why dating couples invite each other home for a coffee: caffeine makes people more persuadable. Controlled experiments showed that after only moderate amounts, drinkers were more likely to agree with persuasive arguments.

Pearl Martin, from the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland, said that the findings would not interest only courting couples. Politicians and advertisers would also take note. “Given the numerous situations in which people are exposed to persuasive arguments, these results could have many applied implications. Consider how caffeine-containing products might affect how persuaded a person is when listening to advertisements or a political speech,” she said The results, published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, came from two experiments involving about 140 students in Western Australia.

It puts us in an agreeable mood, perks us up, fights (and/or causes) cancer, and provides more antioxidant goodness than blueberries. Well, maybe not really.

link: http://www.longlifeclub.com/article.php?aid=518

Ok, so if you don’t dump a bunch of sugar and milk into your coffee you won’t be getting much, if any antioxidants.

But, let’s not quibble, as this is only minor compared to the really big deception. Let me explain by examining another food item, say, blueberries. By volume or by weight, blueberries have at least a thousand times more antioxidants than coffee.

Why do people get more antioxidants from coffee than blueberries? Well, over the course of a year or so, the average American will drink approximately 45 gallons of coffee and eat approximately one pint of blueberries. So when you add this up, the average American gets more antioxidants from coffee than [from] blueberries. Obviously, coffee is much better for you than blueberries!

Not!

My new alkaline lifestyle proscribes coffee, but I intend to keep drinking my one cup in the morning (with milk (local, unpasturized, and always from one of the same two cows) and with processed sugar and Coffee Tamer, AKA pH Choice). For me, it remains a much-cherrished and societally-endorsed drug ritual of which I partake each morning, with my wife, in a familiar and comforting ritual. This ritual roots us together in deep time.

Their stimulant properties made caffeine in coffee and its close cousin theobromine in tea the ideal drugs for the Industrial Revolution: they provided an energy lift, enabling people to keep working at repetitious tasks that demanded concentration. Indeed, the tea and coffe break is the only drug ritual that has never been criticized by those who profit from the modern industrial state.

-Terence McKenna, Food of the Gods