Coffee: Good? Bad? Whatever. Just Don't Smoke

No need to obsess over every study, experts say

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 17, 2009 9:12 AM CST

(Newser) – It can seem impossible to sort through the health news that comes out every day: Is coffee good for you? Is it bad? Does this or that give you cancer? The best solution, for now, may just be not to worry about it, Trine Tsouderos writes in the Chicago Tribune. Specific studies that seem to reveal a lot about a particular habit really don’t have much weight for the individual.

Studies that find, say, a lower cancer risk among coffee-drinkers can be helpful to scientists seeking to gather a “snowball” of evidence on a particular subject, Tsouderos notes. But the individual should worry only when the snowball gets huge, as it has for evidence against smoking. As for coffee, there’s“no need to change your habits unless you start to hear health professionals urgently calling for action,” says an expert.

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (1)]

A barista serves cappuccinos in a coffee competition. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

A customer holds a coffee drink in front of a Starbucks coffee shop. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

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There are some risk factors that have a major impact. But for most lifestyle and diet choices—I'm not claiming none have an impact, but their impact is likely to be very small, if anything. - John Ioannidis, Tufts University School of Medicine

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 7 comments

Forderon

Feb 17, 2009 3:45 AM CST

Growing up drinking chai, and even that only rarely, I find coffee nasty. Starbucks should be considered a drug company and treated as such. They are getting away with addicting Americans to 6 dollar coffee

Shannonals

Feb 17, 2009 2:23 AM CST

I don't care what they say, I'm not going to stop drikning coffee

Guest

Feb 17, 2009 2:01 AM CST

Annie, I was so impressed (and as a fellow coffee drinker, inspired) by your accounts that I didn't even notice the misspelling. :)

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Coffee: Good? Bad? Whatever. Just Don't Smoke