10 comments

  • Bridged7756 44 minutes ago
    I love coffee. It's good for you, it smells and tastes so good. It wakes you up, and prevents sleepiness after meals. Its stimulant nature is a plus, but not necessarily the main thing.
    • jorvi 1 minute ago
      Unfortunately the most flavorful methods (espresso, french press, moka) also raise your cholesterol. So sadly, no, coffee is not universally "good for you". Filtered coffee methods are though, as the filter absorbs the oils.
    • JXavierH 19 minutes ago
      That's why I moved to decaf. Love coffee, caffeine doesn't like me.
      • campbel 4 minutes ago
        I am definitely going to do this as I age, I just don't need the stimulant effects as much anymore. That said, the ritual of getting coffee and sipping on something warm in the morning is really important to starting my day right.
      • joe_mamba 1 minute ago
        I can't. I tried all the decaf beans in my area and even some fancy online roastery specialized only in decaf beans, and they all sucked compared to their caffeinated cousins.

        Not sure what the decaffeination process does, but it definitely does not preserve the same taste.

    • EA-3167 20 minutes ago
      I would be very cautious about any conclusions regarding its health benefits or detriments. Nutrition research is notoriously difficult to replicate or show causal links in humans engaging with the real world.

      Texas A&M also has a coffee research center dedicated to promoting and protecting global coffee trade and consumption so… yeah.

      • ejohansson 15 minutes ago
        Sure, but it's also the best we got.
  • technothrasher 1 hour ago
    "While caffeine is the major individual component of coffee, the study suggests that it may not be the primary driver of these health effects."

    All you haters that give me grief for drinking my daily cup of decaf can shut up now.

    • jayd16 48 minutes ago
      The decaf tries to warn you itself with its bright carafe colorings. In nature that means "Do not touch me, I am poison."
    • EbNar 12 minutes ago
      Why should someone hate on you just because you enjoy decaf?
    • obsidianbases1 1 hour ago
      Are you familiar with the process of extracting the caffeine in decaf?

      Unfortunately it isn't without potential downsides.

      • technothrasher 1 hour ago
        Yes, I know the four main methods of decaffeination. The haters have gone down this road with me many times. Why can't people just let me drink my decaf? It's like they can't enjoy their caffeine unless everybody does. It's weirdly pushy.
        • rendaw 11 minutes ago
          I don't think GP was criticizing you for liking decaf. Just pointing out that the decaf process may have affects on the beneficial compounds that aren't caffeine.
        • xvedejas 27 minutes ago
          My initial charitable reading -- as someone who sometimes dabbles in decaf -- is that decaffeination has the bad side effect of stripping flavors, and likely many of the other biologically active chemicals. I can see from their further posts that they were more interested in unscientific fear mongering instead.

          That said, I do think there is some truth that decaf is lacking (including via supercritical CO2) and I wonder how long until we could have a product like genetically engineered coffee plants that produce everything except caffeine. I'd like that, though I can immediately see an issue with growing a plant without its natural pesticide.

        • ragall 10 minutes ago
          By "All you haters that give me grief for drinking my daily cup of decaf can shut up now", you are implying that decaf has the same health benefits of real coffee. That's not proven. And if you weren't meaning to imply that, there was no point to that reply.
        • ai_slop_hater 1 hour ago
          [flagged]
          • tyre 38 minutes ago
            Criticizing someone for their subjective preference in drinks is incredibly weird.
          • nemomarx 53 minutes ago
            Why? Coffee tastes good. What's wrong with drinking something that you like the taste of, or just a warm drink in general?
          • Jaxan 47 minutes ago
            If you don’t like the taste, you shouldn’t drink it, imo. So yes, one enjoys coffee exactly for the flavour.
          • amunozo 54 minutes ago
            Drinking coffee for caffeine is pathetic, in my humble opinion.
      • didgeoridoo 1 hour ago
        Supercritical CO2 extraction is pretty innocuous. Just buy good decaf from a place that doesn’t bathe their beans in toxic waste.
      • throwaway902984 1 hour ago
        There are multiple methods that James hoffman breaks down in this video iirc, if anyone is curious.

        https://youtu.be/yYTSdlOdkn0?si=uAo3pipjBA91OV5V

    • JXavierH 18 minutes ago
      I'm all for decaf 100%.
  • RobRivera 54 minutes ago
    I need more dopamine headlines like this to justify my dopamine addiction to coffee.
    • Bridged7756 48 minutes ago
      Not everything is dopamine. Maybe nitpicky on my end but it gets tiresome when everyone is just like dopamine this, dopamine that, when no one really understands neurotransmitters.
      • pjerem 38 minutes ago
        Haha, I viewed a video recently (in French) that said « dopamine is right-wing ».

        It was ironic but interesting : dopamine is viewed as THE neurotransmitter of motivation while in fact it’s only one part of the mechanism. But it’s the part everyone is bragging about because it supports the idea that you can control your dopamine levels and be responsible of your own motivation.

        The whole point of the argument was that your serotonin and noradrenaline levels were as much as important if not more, and, fat chance, you cannot buy serotonin or noradrenaline supplements. You have to be in mentally in a good place to get those right and that’s not something you have that much control over. Especially your noradrenaline levels are strongly tied to the quality of your environment and that’s why you should politically fight for a better life environment.

  • pawelduda 39 minutes ago
    Seems to also be relevant for yerba mate which also contains chemical compounds that bind to NR4A1
  • markus_zhang 1 hour ago
    I wonder whether decaf still contains these chemicals. I drank two cups of decaf every day.
    • gleenn 1 hour ago
      TFA mentions that decaf contains these properties as well.
      • avidiax 43 minutes ago
        Not exactly, the article says that the effects aren't linked to caffeine, not that decaf has been shown to have the positive effects or still contain the necessary chemicals.
  • RickJWagner 1 hour ago
    I was never a coffee drinker, but I became interested because what was said in Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s newsletter. ( There is a ton of medical research covered in there. )

    I didn’t dig in too deeply, but started drinking a morning cup of sugar free double mocha cappuccino, to help my workouts.

    If I’m fooling myself, don’t tell me. I like the cappuccino.

  • soupspaces 57 minutes ago
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  • wotsdat 2 hours ago
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  • zingababba 1 hour ago
    Nice, maybe it balances out nicotine. People who don't pair caffeine with nicotine simply have no clue what they are missing ;)
    • neya 1 hour ago
      > People who don't pair caffeine with nicotine simply have no clue what they are missing ;)

      We do, and that's called cancer;)

      • jonnybgood 1 hour ago
        Is there research that links nicotine to cancer? I’m unable to find anything that would suggest nicotine as cancer causing.
        • cf100clunk 1 hour ago
          Are you researching whether you'll get cancer if you are extracting 100% pure nicotine and ingesting it? Who does that?
          • coffeebeqn 49 minutes ago
            Most nicotine users today? Everyone’s using the pure nicotine pouches like zyn and such. I didn’t really find it enjoyable at all
            • raducu 3 minutes ago
              > Most nicotine users today?

              I did use pure nicotine and it was very bad for my health, probably due to high dosage, but still.

              I've used heavy stimulants, benzos, opioids, dissociatives without an issue, but nicotine is in a class of its own in terms of how insidiously addictive it is.

              But just from a health point of view: extreme arm and hand joint issues, forearm vascular issues that made my hands numb at night, palpitations/arrithmia like I was about to die when I used nicotine before sleep and I was drifting to sleep -- it really felt like I was about to die, like my heart was mangled up.

          • steve_adams_86 1 hour ago
            A lot of people consume nicotine. It has been isolated and used in products for a long time. There's no clear link to cancer, but it could impact cardiovascular health (like all stimulants seem to).

            Some research indicates that nicotine can influence how existing cancer behaves and spreads, so that's worth considering.

            • cf100clunk 50 minutes ago
              Right, point taken, but I wasn't following how nicotine properties were connected to coffee's health benefits.
              • christophilus 15 minutes ago
                He was suggesting— jokingly— that maybe coffee cancels out the deleterious effects of smoking, because indeed coffee + a cigar or pipe is truly an excellent experience.
              • Tagbert 34 minutes ago
                zingababba started this thread talking about mixing caffeine and nicotine.
    • sfpotter 26 minutes ago
      "Serious delirium!"
    • soupspaces 1 hour ago
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