The epicenter of one of the most blatant historical injustices of the ancient world lies in a dispersed region between Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. Orona lives there, an ancient people who owed their tremendous service to humanity by discovering coffee. Sure, they did it with salt, and the planet has come a long way since then, but what would the world be like today without a handful of strawberries?

To begin with, according to numerous epidemiological studies, there will be more arrhythmias, more cardiovascular disease and related deaths.

Much has been said about coffee.. It is addictive (we cannot speak of addiction, although the amounts of dopamine associated with a standard dose of caffeine cannot activate the so-called “reward circuits” of the brain, and therefore stopping consumption abruptly can lead to imbalances). (although the effect of caffeine rarely lasts longer than six hours and can actually cause insomnia), which may be associated with cancer risk (because if not processed well, acrylamide can be a problem) or that the strength of coffee is related to its “effectiveness”. Some are true, but most are outright false. What no one can say is that there isn’t a ton of research on the heart protective effect of this food.

Is coffee the heart’s best friend? Studies and research have traditionally been telling us this for years. It’s not entirely clear why, although some experts believe this is a problem with coffee’s extraordinary “antioxidant” capacity. Even so, we don’t know much about the details of that consumption. For example, we have no idea about the effect of different coffee preparations on cardiovascular outcomes and survival.

So some researchers from the University of Melbourne got to work and using data from the UK Biobank (a large database for biomedical research) they were able to see what impact the different types of coffee we consume have on our health. .

two or three cups of coffee. In this case, the researchers examined the effect of consuming two or three cups of decaffeinated, ground, and instant coffee. Interestingly, they found an association with significant reductions in mortality and cardiovascular events in all three cases; however, only ground and instant coffees (not decaffeinated) were associated with a reduction in arrhythmia.

What did we do? Shall we drink coffee? No, this is not the subject of the study. First, because of the experimental design. This is observational: that is, although our ability to analyze this type of relationship is getting better and better, causation is more than questionable. It cannot be said that consuming this amount of coffee produces these results. And second, because a diet should not be defined by research. Contrary to myth, it’s true that there is overwhelming evidence to say it’s heart-protective, but dieting is more complex than a handful of products with exotic properties.

It is true that there are supplements with solid evidence behind them (coffee is one of them, as I said), but the vast majority are “balsam of Fierabrás”; things that don’t work. It is becoming more and more important to consider the diet as a whole.

Image | Collin Merkel