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Coffee Is No. 1 Source of Antioxidants

Americans Get More Antioxidants From Coffee Than Any Other Food or Beverage
By Jennifer Warner, WebMD Medical News
Reviewed By Michael Smith, MD on Monday, August 29, 2005

Aug. 28, 2005 -- Your morning cup of coffee may provide more than just a caffeine jolt -- it could be your most valuable source of disease-fighting antioxidants.
A new study shows coffee is the No. 1 source of antioxidants in the American diet.
"Americans get more of their antioxidants from coffee than any other dietary source. Nothing else comes close," says researcher Joe Vinson, PhD, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton, in a news release.
Antioxidants are found naturally in many foods and beverages and are thought to provide health benefits in preventing diseases such as heart disease and cancer by fighting cellular damage caused by free radicals in the body. Free radicals are damaging substances that are produced through normal bodily processes.
Coffee Provides More Antioxidants Than Fruit?
Fruits and vegetables are hailed as the richest sources of antioxidants, but this study shows that coffee is the main source from which most Americans get their antioxidants.
Vinson says high antioxidant levels in foods and beverages don't always translate into high antioxidant levels in the body. He says the potential health benefits of antioxidants depend largely on how they are absorbed and used by the body, and that's a process that is still poorly understood by researchers.
Researchers calculated the top sources of antioxidants based on the average U.S. per capita consumption of 100 food and beverages containing the compounds.
The results showed that based on both antioxidant content per serving size and frequency of consumption, coffee came out on top, topping other popular sources of antioxidants, such as tea, chocolate, and fruit.
Where Americans Get Their Antioxidants
After coffee, the study showed the other top 10 sources of antioxidants in the American diet were:
· Black tea
· Bananas
· Dried beans
· Corn
· Red wine
· Beer (lager style)
· Apples
· Tomatoes
· Potatoes
Researchers say both caffeinated and decaf versions of coffee appear to provide similar amounts of antioxidants. But they say these results shouldn't be interpreted as an excuse to increase your daily java dose for your health's sake.
For example, Vinson says antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables offer much more in terms of total nutrition due to their higher content of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. He says dates, cranberries, and red grapes contain the highest concentration of antioxidants per serving size of all fruits, but Americans don't consume nearly as much of these fruits as they do coffee.
The study, which was primarily funded by the American Cocoa Research Institute, was presented this week at the American Chemical Society Meeting in Washington.

Kudos to Coffee
By Willow Lawson - September 13th 2005

Remember when coffee was the enemy? That was only about five or six years ago. Many of us looked down our noses at java addicts, clucking about the stress, high blood pressure and even heart disease that drinkers might be inflicting upon themselves.

How times have changed! Today we know that coffee drinkers have a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes, a disease that's poised to be a huge health threat in the fattest of Western nations. Moreover, it's the coffee drinkers who are most addicted to the brew that seem to reap the most benefit.

Nowadays we also know that coffee gives one's mood a significant boost. Java enthusiasts have a lower risk of suicide. Just one cup of coffee per day seems to do the trick. Coffee also increases mental agility in the elderly and boosts physical performance in athletes. It also seems to protect against Parkinson's disease, colon and liver cancer.
Now comes news for people who still aren't convinced: Coffee is the number one source of cell-protecting antioxidants in the U.S. diet, according to a study by researchers at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. Of a study of 100 foods -- including tea, chocolate and cranberries -- coffee outranked them all.

"Nothing else comes close," says study leader Joe Vinson, Ph.D., a chemistry professor at the university. Both decaf and regular coffee have similar antioxidant levels, according to the study. Dates were the only food to outrank coffee in antioxidant concentration, says Vinson. But because Americans are not nearly as fond of dates as they are of coffee, java came out on top due to sheer popularity.

The study is the first to find that coffee packs such a powerful punch in terms of antioxidants. These tiny molecules help neutralize the body's free radicals -- highly reactive molecular fragments that, left to their own devices, undermine normal body processes by attacking cell membranes and the genetic material contained inside cells.
Free radicals accumulate in tissue as a result of normal metabolic activity, exposure to toxins and age. The damage they do is collectively known as oxidative stress, and it is thought to cause cancer and other age-related diseases.
Researchers say the study isn't license to cut down on the other healthy foods that also contain antioxidants in abundance, including dark berries, colorful vegetables and chocolate. Each provides a different antioxidant, of which there are hundreds, even thousands.

But Vinson says that researchers are learning that high levels of antioxidants in food don't necessarily translate into benefits for the human body. Scientists still don't quite understand how antioxidants are absorbed and used by the body.

So for now, we can all sing coffee's praises. But researchers caution that the latest java news doesn't mean that the more coffee, the better. Vinson still advocates moderation. "One to two cups a day appear to be beneficial," he says. If you don't like coffee, consider drinking black tea, which is the second most consumed antioxidant source in the U.S. diet, Vinson says. Bananas, dry beans and corn placed third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
Word is getting out, it seems. Even with a Starbucks seemingly on every other corner, coffee is still increasing in popularity in the U.S. More than half of all Americans drink it every day.
Willow Lawson is the news editor at Psychology Today.

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