Faith: God is the ultimate authority on immortality – easternnewmexiconews.com

As a serious lover of coffee, and as a mortal, I read the headline with interest: People With Daily Intake Of 1.5 to 3.5 Cups Of Coffee Less Likely To Die.

I find this headline problematic on several levels. First, its lousy capitalization. No matter which style manual you use, this title has problems.

But you see the bigger problem, dont you? I suspect that your experience is the same as mine, and Im telling no secrets here. But, in my experience, though I find coffee beneficial on many levels, no matter how much of it anyone drinks, everyone dies100%.

I found the same headline showing up on other news outlets (sometimes with better capitalization), and they added two words, by 30%.

That confuses me even more. Does that mean only 30% of the people who are somewhat serious coffee drinkers might not die? Even the lower percentage would be impressive. Sort of like saying that Ive had three dogs, but only one of them could speak coherently. But, sadly, even the lower percentage, both of coffee drinkers and talking dogs, flies in the face of reality.

If you read further, youll discover that the study was done in China. The thugs in charge there lie as often as they tell the truth, but I figure this is accurate.

Chinese scientists monitored 171,000 people for seven years. At the beginning of the study, none of the participants had cancer or heart disease. According to Luke Andrews, the health reporter for DailyMail.com, the research team found those who regularly drank coffee were about a third less likely to die than those who did not.

Does that help explain? Not by much.

The article goes on to tell us that the researchers found that it didnt matter whether the coffee was plain or sweetened with sugar.

Well, at least theres that. But I still find the explanation lacking.

Reading on, I learn that during the seven-year study, the deaths that occurred numbered 3,177 (including 1,725 from cancer and 628 from heart disease).

It seems that simply drinking hot drinks lowered mortality somewhat, but the participants who reported at the start of the study that they drank 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee daily, well, they were 30% less likely to die during the seven years.

The researchers went on to mention (this is my paraphrase) that many health benefits have previously been reported in studies regarding coffee. (Ive been noting those for years.) But this study was not specifically designed to study coffee consumption. Their coffee discovery was just observational, a surprise, and they are drawing no major conclusions from it.

If youre interested, do a web search (plugging in something like 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee), and you can read a lot more.

For my part, Ill add this information regarding the benefits of coffee to my personal stash of such material. Ive felt better for a long time now knowing that my love for coffee has been good for me, not that Id have stopped drinking it if the evidence had pointed in the other direction.

Ever since health evidence mistakenly touted margarines benefits over butter and thus robbed me of years of buttery flavor my policy regarding most health news is watchful waiting. I can usually wait out the reports I dont like. Since they change more easily and quickly than Im willing to change my habits, this approach has worked well. Folks who worry too much about such are more likely to die early of stress than those of us who dont. Thats my own study.

With regard to coffee, which I hold in very high regard, I cant imagine how anyone wakes up, thinks, or writes without it.

But the truth is that my interest in this particular coffee article waned a good bit after I realized that the study isnotindicating any sort of immortality connected to coffee consumption.

Im OK with that. In this present world, enoughs enough. And I am completely convinced that the Author of life has the ultimate immortality thing well in hand.

Curtis Shelburne writes about faith for The Eastern New Mexico News. Contact him at:

[emailprotected]

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Faith: God is the ultimate authority on immortality - easternnewmexiconews.com