Chemicals and cream - goodnews - chemical composition of coffee - Brief Article

Better Nutrition, Sept, 2003

Is organic coffee a lot safer than regular coffee?

Organic coffee may be a natural, bean-based, pesticide-free beverage. But did you know that all coffee is filled with chemicals?

Scientists have identified 1,000 different chemicals in a cup of coffee. But how many of the 1,000 chemicals have been tested in animal cancer studies? Only 22--leaving 978 compounds in your morning java about which we know very little. And of those 22 that were tested, were any found to be carcinogens, or cancer-causing compounds? Seventeen of the 22 are, in fact, carcinogens.

Carcinogens are found in many foods--as are offsetting cancer-fighting chemicals--but in small quantities. If we wanted to avoid all carcinogens, we'd have to stop eating altogether. But there are 10 milligrams (mg) of known carcinogens in a single cup of coffee. To put that into perspective, 10 mg is probably more than all the synthetic pesticide residues you could get from eating non-organic food for an entire year. In one cup.

Nevertheless, moderate coffee consumption is not considered a risk factor for cancer. And coffee is linked to the following benefits: It boosts endurance by delaying fatigue; it improves long-term memory; it may help prevent kidney stones; it relaxes lung spasms during an asthma episode; and, as you may have discovered, it stimulates your gastrointestinal tract.