Quote:
Originally Posted by rubicon
Hi Villages PL: As I recollect the article was quoting Cardiologists. coffee has never upset my stomach nor my wife.
The problem associated with healthy eating advice is that there are so many experts who contradict one another and then reverse their roles a few years later. I suspect a conspiracy
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The study was very narrowly focused on short term memory and wasn't even about coffee! No coffee was ever used in the study. They used 200-mg caffeine tablets. That's why I was asking to see what readers remembered. They might have remembered the headline in the newspaper:
"Don't forget your coffee" 
I thought it was strange because "tea" was never mentioned in the article, even though regular tea contains caffeine too.
Also, what was missing was an exact comparison between the test group and the control group. All they said was that the test group "did well". They looked at images, then took the caffeine and had their memories tested the next day. We don't even know if it has any long term effect - beyond one day. (A previous study showed little to no improvement in memory.)
The reporter interviewed some Village residents: Some said they thought it was good for their memory and some said they doubted it was of any value for their memory - in general they thought: it all depends on the aging process.
My opinion: Caffeine functions as a stimulant and it increases your heart rate, thereby increasing blood flow to the brain. That extra blood flow to the brain may be what some people need if they have some narrowing of their arteries. So it may serve as a temporary boost but it's not a permanent fix for a poor diet. Coffee drinkers would be much better off if they concentrated on eating a heart healthy diet.