I don't know about you, but I am. One day I'll read a report on a coffee study that says coffee is bad for you. The next day I'll read a report that says coffee is good for you. One report will talk about the negative effects of caffeine. The next report will talk about the positive effects of caffeine. Are there really any coffee studies that provide a balanced view? Who pays for these studies? The latest study I read has a huge gaping hole in it.

The Morning Jolt

A report, published earlier this month, stated things that are obvious without stating what should be obvious.

Basically, the story reports that non-coffee drinkers become alert in the morning as quickly without coffee as coffee drinkers do with coffee. The study, as far as I can tell, doesn't take into consideration that not all non-coffee drinkers drink caffeine-free beverages in the morning. Some of them drink soda or hot tea, both of which contain caffeine. Of course, it doesn't seem to take decaffeinated coffee into consideration either.

What it leaves out, the big gaping hole, is the effect that coffee (with caffeine) has on people who don't drink coffee regularly. From my own experience with people like that, coffee has a stronger effect on them than any of the so called energy drinks.

It's Just Coffee

Regardless of any health benefits or lack thereof, most people I know drink coffee just because they like to drink coffee. It has nothing to do with being alert or getting a jolt from the caffeine in the morning.

It's not like regular coffee is man-made or anything, like soda and energy drinks. Coffee is made from the seeds of the coffee fruit, from the coffee plants, which are called coffee beans simply because they look like beans. Pure coffee grounds or pure instant coffee is made from ground up coffee beans (although you can eat chocolate-covered coffee beans at your own peril).

The only way that consuming coffee could be any more natural would be to eat the fruit as it comes from the plant. I hear they don't taste too good, but I've never tried one.

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I've seen references to organic coffee as well as non-organic coffee and it's piqued my curiosity on more than one occasion. I finally broke down and did some research on the matter.

Organic Coffee

Organic coffee is coffee that has been grown according to organic farming techniques or on farms which incorporate recycling, composting, soil health and environmental protections.

Most organic coffee is grown in the shade, requiring less land to be cleared and thus protecting forestry. Soil erosion is prevented and the natural habitats for wildlife are preserved when the forests are left intact. Nature takes care of the pest problems that damage the coffee plants.

Most organic coffee is grown in the countries of Ethiopia, Mexico and Peru. It shouldn't make you wonder since the start up costs for organic coffee plantations are much lower than non-organic coffee plantations, although the yield is generally much lower.

Regular coffee, the non-organic kind, is grown with the aid of artificial fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. In general, it isn't grown 100 percent naturally. You think that Colombian coffee you're so fond of is organic? Guess again.

The Economics of Organic Coffee

The economy of organic coffee deals with the entire process of coffee production from start to finish — from the initial plantings to be served at the table. The benefits, on the human scale, far outweigh the costs.

Concentrating on organic coffee reduces water usage, water contamination, soil erosion, carbon emissions and more. While organic farming is more labor-intensive, conventional farming is more capital-intensive. Organic coffee growers complain that marketing is their greatest obstacle since they don't product the kind of capital that conventional coffee growers do.

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I think I drink way too much coffee during any given day. Although it's not keeping me up at night, it can't be good for me. I think if and when I switch to decaffeinated coffee, I'll suffer from some severe caffeine withdrawal headaches for a couple of days.

The Problems with Decaffeinated Coffee

The biggest problem I have with decaffeinated coffee is the taste. I don't know about anyone else, but I can taste the difference between regular coffee and decaffeinated coffee. This is especially true if it's the same brand. I really don't want to sacrifice the flavor of regular coffee when switching.

I'm concerned about whether decaffeinated coffee is as healthy as regular coffee. There are at least six different methods used to turn regular coffee into decaffeinated coffee. I worry that any one of the processes could do more damage than good and I'm not just talking about the coffee. What we consume affects us and I'm more worried about the effect it would have on me than the effect on the coffee itself.

Naturally Decaffeinated Coffee

This is a misnomer because there isn't any such thing. It's just what scientists have labeled it as. The proper term would either be "low-caffeine coffee" or "caffeine-free coffee". Actually, anything that would indicate that caffeine didn't have to be removed would be okay.

Caffeine-free natural coffees were found among wild Madagascan species, but are not sold on the world market. They produce inferior coffee and are difficult to breed from.

In 2004, researchers in Brazil completed a study of around 3,000 coffee plants from Ethiopia and found three that had almost no caffeine. The plants appear to lack an enzyme needed to produce caffeine. Scientists hoped that by crossing the caffeine-free variety with commercial crops they could make natural brands that could be available in five years. This is 2009 and that five-year mark is rapidly approaching. I haven't seen any yet.

Health Concerns about Caffeine

Coffee has been linked to risk factors for heart disease, stillbirths, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, and insomnia. I don't know who did the linking and whether it's coffee in general they're talking about or caffeine itself.

Researchers claim that drinking coffee can lower the risk of Parkinson's disease and help protect against bladder cancer. Again, I don't know if they're talking about coffee or caffeine.

I'm 48-years old and I have yet to suffer any ill effects from drinking regular coffee. I drink several cups a day and have been doing so for at least 20 years. What I'm afraid of is the possibility that it may affect me as I head past middle-age.

When I sleep, I sleep like a rock (or like a log, depending on what colloquialism you prefer). My sleep cycle is odd enough as it is because of all the online projects I continuously work on (and dealing with a global audience), so I can't say whether caffeine affects my sleep or not.

I think I'm going to try to hold out for the natural caffeine-free coffee to hit the market. If so, my worries will be over.

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I normally don't recycle pictures to use on multiple articles, but I really have to make an exception when it comes to coffee beans. There only so many ways to present them and hunting down new photographs is a chore in itself. Anyway, that's obviously not what this article is about. No, I just wanted to throw out some things about coffee beans that some people aren't aware of.

Coffee Beans are NOT Beans

When my 23-year old son doesn't know that coffee beans aren't really beans, it's time to mention it over and over again and as often as possible. People who aren't familiar with the history of the coffee plants, especially young people, take way too much for granted by the way things are called. Coffee beans start out as berries of the coffee plants. They're then dried and the seeds, the part that people call the beans, are removed and dried before heading off on their next stop in the journey from the plant to your stomach.

Roasted Coffee Beans

From what I've seen, most coffee beans sold AS coffee beans in supermarkets and other such places are roasted beforehand. What I mean to say is that you usually can't find coffee beans that haven't been roasted yet. I know raw coffee beans are available; otherwise coffee roasters wouldn't be available to the general public.

I don't trust my cooking skills, much less any kind of roasting skills. I could screw up barbecued hot dogs. No, I will always leave that step of the process to others.

Coffee Grounds

I really don't have any idea why ground coffee is called "coffee grounds". I guess it was coined by some unimaginative person way back when. I would call it coffee flakes or coffee powder (I've actually heard "coffee powder" used and it's even displayed as such on instant coffee labels), but never coffee grounds.

In most supermarkets, heck even in most supermarkets in the Philippines (where I live — no, I'm not a Filipino before anyone asks me yet again), you can buy coffee beans that only need to be ground up to be used. Usually, one or more coffee grinders are available nearby, including generic bags to put the results in.

Although coffee grinders are available for home use, it's still another area step in the process that I'll gladly leave to someone else. I won't use a coffee grinder to grind coffee beans at the market and I won't grind them at home. It's just way too easy to get coffee that only needs one step from the container to the cup and I'm basically a lazy person when it comes to doing things for myself.

There is a specialty coffee bean that I can't seem to find here in the Philippines, that I'm really fond of, but I'm not going to mention it yet. I'll save that for my next article. After reading all that I wrote above, can you guess what I'm going to be writing about? Hint: They're sold at places that have the same title as this blog (or a slight variation of using "or" instead of "and").

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