Yet Another Confusing Coffee Article

“Caffeine shown to slow loss of memory in older women” by Maria Kubacki, Canwest News Service. The Gazette, Montreal, Tuesday, August 7, 2007, page A11.

This article is not about caffeine. It’s about coffee! But the mix-up is not the author’s fault. Maria Kubacki was simply quoting the lead researcher, Karen Ritchie, of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, who equated caffeine with coffee, a big leap of faith, and certainly behind the times in natural products research. The study was published in the current issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Twenty-five years ago, you could get away with such assumptions and equating an active component (which is one of many) of a natural food, drink, or medicine to be responsible for all its pharmacologic activities. Nobody would question you then because little research was being performed on the natural material’s other active components; and most researchers viewed a natural substance as if it were a single-chemical drug, for example, caffeine as coffee. It is no longer the case. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) passed in October of 1994 has changed all that. Since then, scientific research on natural medicines or supplements has been broadened to not just fixate on a particular chemical component, but rather begin to look at their totality and how they actually may benefit people. And in its totality, coffee is not caffeine!

Common drinks such as coffee and tea used to be considered synonymous with caffeine and/or theophylline. But research over the past ten to twenty years has found them to be rich in other phytochemicals such as polyphenols (e.g., up to 10% chlorogenic acid, an anti-inflammatory polyphenol) that have strong antioxidant properties. That’s not all. There are other potentially beneficial chemicals or phytonutrients also present. However, since these findings are still not widely known except through marketing by dietary supplement companies, the mainstream press largely ignores them. Which is why in both the scientific and popular media, coffee is still so often reported as caffeine. Another reason is old habits are difficult to break. Many conventionally trained health researchers tend to continue to confuse an active chemical with an intact botanical or any natural material, for that matter. Thus, some still use ginseng (whatever kind), Echinacea, tea, or coffee as if it were a single-chemical drug in their research and reporting. It appears the French researchers and the Neurology journal reviewers and editors fall into this category.

In any case, in the current report, three or more cups of coffee or tea daily was found to slow memory loss in older women, especially those over 80. The authors of the study readily pointed out this benefit as due to caffeine. Yet this was not a drug study. The drug, caffeine, was not consumed by itself, but rather as a constituent in coffee along with hundreds of other chemicals, some of which have been shown to be strongly antioxidant and possibly with other more important pharmacologic effects on Alzheimer’s disease as well. If the researchers were more cognizant of the other beneficial components of coffee and tea (as both have another thing in common – high polyphenols content), they might have discovered something important which could stimulate new research on coffee and tea. Instead, it’s more of the same based on the wrong premises. It’s a pity! The effects of other coffee and tea components besides caffeine are worth serious scientific study. It may even resolve some of the controversies about coffee, or caffeine.

Learn more about coffee and read further about Dr. Leung and his writings! Visit http://www.earthpower.com/.

Diet Therapy for Diabetes: Part 2 of 5

NOTE: Following is the second of five excerpts on diabetes from one of Dr. Leung's earlier writings. This originally appeared in 1997 in Dr. Leung's newsletter, Leung's Chinese Herb News, Issue 11, page 3. -ed

In a recent issue of the Shizhen Journal of TCM Research [Shizhen Guoyao Yanjiu,8(6): 553 (1997)], numerous simple treatments of diabetes using common Chinese foods or herbs are summarized by three doctors from the Caiyuan Municipal People's Hospital of Shandong Province. The following recipes are based on herbs/foods that should be available in Chinese or other ethnic stores in North America.

Green Tea

The original study was made by a Japanese professor, who showed that drinking green tea can reduce excess sugar in the blood. However, the tea must be made with cooled boiled water and not with hot water. It is claimed that hot water will destroy the hypoglycemic components. For sanitary reasons, I suggest you select your green tea with care, since any harmful bacteria in the tea would not be killed when steeped in cold water. Japanese green teas are usually good. If you don't mind drinking cold tea, this remedy is certainly simple and convenient. It won't hurt to try it for a couple months. You never know.

Asian ginseng and egg white soup

Mix 3 g of ginseng powder with one egg white and add boiling water to make a tea/soup. Take this no more than once a day, or better, every other day.

These and more herbal remedies are available from the volumes of Dr. Leung’s newsletter, of the same name as this blog (Leung’s Chinese Herb News). This newsletter was published and sent to subscribers (most were industry-insiders) from 1996 to 2004. The collected works now serve as an excellent reference work, created with Dr. Leung’s frank, honest opinions and down-to-earth communication style.For more information about Dr. Leung and his writings, visit http://www.earthpower.com/. To order the newsletter containing the remedies mentioned above, visit the bookstore, click “Buy Now” on the newsletter, and select Issue # 11 from the drop down list.