COFFEE: DON'T WORRY ABOUT CANCER; WORRY ABOUT IT DEPLETING B1, THIAMINE

Well, don't expect to learn of the real value of food or their nutritional compounds from non-profits.  Starbucks, and other sellers inside California, has been ordered to post a warning that their coffee contains carcinogens.  Oh, brother.  This is terrible.  Whether coffee contains carcinogens or not is not why this is a terrible regulation.  What's terrible is that the customer may find a message on his cup that reads similar to the cigarette warning of:  

SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING:

Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy

What's dumb about it is that the warning itself is subliminal.  It's a message that the consumer inhales with each bite, sip, puff puff, or what have you.

Further, the compound that has been designated a carcinogen is acrylamide, a chemical used in the roasting process.  And the article does not go into what kinds of cancers what might get with acrylamide.  So there are no details.  

Thursday, March 29, 2018 07:53PM

LOS ANGELES (KABC) --

A judge ruled that Starbucks and other coffee sellers in California must provide a cancer warning on their products for customers.

A nonprofit group sued several companies that sell coffee, including Starbucks, coffee distributors and retailers in 2010.

The lawsuit claimed those companies violated state law, which requires them to warn consumers about chemicals in the roasting process that may cause cancer. One of those chemicals is acrylamide, which is a carcinogen.

Attorneys for about 90 companies said the chemical is present in the process, but that it's at harmless levels and is outweighed by the benefits of drinking a cup of coffee.

The ruling came despite eased concerns in recent years about the possible dangers of coffee, with some studies finding health benefits. In 2016, the International Agency for Research on Cancer--the cancer agency of the World Health Organization--moved coffee off its "possible carcinogen" list.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Coffee is a mixed bag nutritionally speaking.  It is a mild mineral chelator.  That can be good if someone already has cancer and they're trying to reduce absorption to more heavy minerals, like iron, mercury, and calcium.  Coffee is good for your vision.  So it has a couple of benefits.  But if someone is an addictive drinker of coffee, like I was, it can deplete B vitamins to the point that you'll actually feel tired.  That's not good.  But again this only after a week or two of steady coffee drinking of 3 to 4 cups a day, depending on your current B vitamin status.  You may already be deficient in B vitamins adn then drinking coffee on a regular basis, well, then it's not good for you.  So it's not so much that the coffee is bad; it's that your body requires daily sustained amounts of B vitamins.  Get it?  Good.  Read Bill Sardi on this.  

The problem of thiamin deficiency may be traced to another daily practice, the consumption of coffee, tea or beer. Many millions of people consume coffee or tea at the same time they take their morning multivitamin. What's the problem with tea or coffee? They contain tannins (bitter parts) that alter vitamin B1 and render it useless. Sulfite preservatives, as found in wine, are another antagonist to B1. Alcohol also interferes with B1 absorption. In fact, about 30-80% of alcohol users have low circulating levels of B1. The lesson here is not to take vitamin B1 pills with coffee, tea or alcohol. 

Forget about cancer.  This is what you really have to worry about from your addicting consumption of coffee.  A cup or two per day may not be that bad, but be sure that you're taking B1 away from your coffee consumption.  

A policeman is flagged down by a 32-year-old woman at a park in Joliet, Illinois who says she can't remember who she is or how she got there. She is later found to be a mother of four children living in Jackson, Michigan. Her name is Amber. She has not recovered memory of her earlier life or what triggered her amnesia. Doctors are at a loss to know what caused this case of "global amnesia."

Marie is college educated, with a father who is a physician and mother who is a nurse, and she can't find anyone who can tell her why she is experiencing severe nausea and vomiting early in her first pregnancy. No one seems to know. Folk remedies are sought. Despite being the most common torment of pregnancy, the cause of morning sickness remains a mystery. Or is it?

Jim, a rock sculptor living near Ontario, California, looks like Indiana Jones in the movie Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Prop him up on a bar stool drinking down some brew and he would fit into any beer commercial. He is manly but has an unmanly and embarrassing problem. All of a sudden he can't seem to control his bowels. He is running to the bathroom all the time. His doctor says it is irritable bowel syndrome, a now common condition that forces sufferers to be closely tethered to bathrooms. A drug is prescribed that slows down gastric transit time but induces sleepiness, and can't be taken while driving. But what is the cause of his problem?

Jackie is out of work and living in Santa Fe, New Mexico and suffering with relentless pain that has been diagnosed as fibromyalgia. Doctors don't seem to have an answer as to what causes this problem. Inexplicably, a number of people with fibromyalgia report having the same problem as Jim the rock sculptor (above), irritable bowel. Are the two conditions linked in any way? An estimated 5 million Americans have fibromyalgia, some of them children.

Robert, an award-winning journalist, wakes up one morning with a slight weakness in his left leg. Then he begins to lose his ability to speak. He has to say "yes" or "no" by shifting his eyes. Doctors offer an experimental drug. For unexplained reasons, doctors delay treatment until Robert loses feeling throughout his body and is now permanently confined to a wheelchair. Doctors say Robert had a bout of Guillain Barré syndrome that never went into remission as most other cases do. Again, doctors have no idea of the cause of this progressive loss of nervous system control, some believing it is triggered by a virus.

Steve, age 35, had been suffering heart palpitations for years and finally was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, a quivering heart muscle in the top chambers of the heart. Surgery and medication began to slowly help Steve regain his energy. Steve wonders if his children will inherit his problem. Despite successful treatment, neither surgery nor medication addresses the still unknown cause of atrial fibrillation. Millions of Americans, mostly men, face this same problem. Treatment consists of prescribing blood thinners to prevent a blood clot in the heart being thrown into the lungs or brain and controlled destruction of the heart muscle (ablation) itself. But what is its cause?

Martin, at age 56, first noticed could not keep up with his 70-year old brother in law when out hunting. He began to experience shortness of breath, fatigue, swelling in his ankles and a persistent cough. The diagnosis: heart failure. The cure: the implantation of a device in his chest that helps his heart pump blood. The device is credited with saving his life. More commonly heart failure is treated with a battery of drugs. But a recent study shows the drugs are of negligible value.