I have just watched a detailed report on the BBC. It appears that a huge study, undertaken in America and Europe, has established that drinking at least three cups of coffee every day will make you live longer. Over 18% of those male coffee drinkers lived longer than those who never drank any coffee, and for women, the figure was lower, at 8%. And no need to go caffeine-free either. It makes no difference, according to these medical geniuses.
Not that long ago, other medical experts considered that coffee was little better than poison. They urged us to stop drinking it, or face medical problems, and early death. Now they have changed their minds. Too late for everyone who gave it up though, and now risk dying earlier than the heavy coffee drinkers who ignored that advice.
I have lived long enough to see many such ‘expert studies’ bandied about on the news, and in the press.
I am old enough to remember when some doctors urged people to smoke, as it was ‘good for the lungs’. As I child, I was constantly fed carrots, to supposedly improve my sight. Then in later life, I made sure to take a lot of vitamin C, because the experts told us it was essential. They just forgot to mention that it would also destroy my stomach lining, and leave me with decades of acid indigestion.
Eat lots of fruit! Five a day, fruit and vegetables. That might stop you getting cancer. Or might not. Drink lots of orange juice, or other fruit juices. Much healthier than fizzy drinks. They forgot about fruit acids and sugars ruining your teeth though. I’m sure that particular pearl of wisdom was started by dentists.
What about eggs? They give you high cholesterol, apparently. Very bad for your arteries, so stop eating them. Now! Oh, hang on, they are not that bad for you at all really, as the cholesterol in eggs is good for you, as opposed to being bad cholesterol. But it doesn’t matter either way, as you now have Statins to combat cholesterol. So, eat what you want within reason, as long as you take lots of Statins for the rest of your life. But they forgot to tell me something else. Statins can also destroy muscle tissue, which migrates into your liver, and causes problems for life. And that muscle doesn’t grow back, so forget doing any heavy work. Forever.
Drink some red wine every day. It’s very good for you, according to the experts. It helps with blood flow, reduces the risk of strokes, and it also tastes good! Hold on a minute! Not THAT much red wine. That much is bad for you, and will enlarge your liver, cause high blood pressure, and make blood clotting harder.
Sugar is very bad for you. It provides short-term energy, affects your teeth, and can make you obese. Cut out the sugar. All of it! Use artificial sweeteners instead. According to the experts, Aspartame is a good alternative, so try that. Be careful though, because different experts will tell you that it will give you bladder cancer. So, once you have died from that, it doesn’t really matter how fat you might have got, or how many times you needed some dental work.
I am so sick and tired of ‘experts’. Fed up with their pointless pontifications, their ‘sponsored studies’, their pompous pronouncements. Listening to them harp on about their theories is like watching a tennis match, with my head swivelling from side to side, trying to make out which side is actually doing something right. You can be certain of something though.
What is good for you today, will surely be bad for you tomorrow.
Great post, and spot on! I loved the tennis match analogy. I’ve always liked coffee—especially strong coffee—but rarely drink it. On the other hand, I drink a lot of iced tea (PG-Tips; two bags per jug, which I empty every day). I only occasionally eat scrambled eggs. Also, I use real butter, not margarine, and sprinkle sugar and salt sparingly. I’ve been trying to be a little more health conscious the past number of years.
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I’m glad this resonated with you, David. During my lifetime, these so-called scientists have changed their minds so many times, none of us really know what’s good for us anymore. We will die when we die, of whatever we die of. That’s the only fact.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I guess the point here is moderation. Scientific study results only reveal what they found, and just like everything else in the world, research findings will change over time as new stuffs are discovered. Perhaps we should listen to their advice, but also remember to use some logics and take them with a pinch of salt!
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I see that your site is called ‘Medical Essentials’, so I am guessing you have an interest in such theories.
I appreciate you taking time to read this post, and leaving your thoughtful comment.
Best wishes, Pete.
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You are so right!
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Thanks, Pam. Glad you agree!
Best wishes, Pete.
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I’m sharing your opinion. I’m over sixty now, and the studies of pro and contras could fill a whole library …
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Thanks, Kerin. It never stops, does it? So irritating.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Well, follow the money, indeed. It is well known that studies that have negative results are published left often and that is why things like side-effects are often only discovered years later. One of the truest things it that one should be suspicious of anything (or anybody) that claims ultimate knowledge. Oscar Wilde already said that the only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. We should never be so selfish as to try and keep it or apply it ourselves. Thanks, Pete!
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Nice quote from Oscar. Thanks, Olga.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Hear, hear! So many words of wisdom have spoken to this problem over decades (centuries?). “Take everything you hear with a grain of salt”, or “Everything in moderation”… the list of good old fashioned common sense is endless. Thank goodness!
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Thanks, Jennie. I wonder at the relative waste of such scientific resources. They could be trying to use their skills to solve real problems instead.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Exactly! Best you you, Pete.
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I too am amazed by the reports that have contradicted themselves over my 70 years. Most amusing is the switch between no fat, low fat and full fat. Back and forth. Don’t eat butter. Eat butter. Don’t drink whole milk. Drink whole milk. To say nothing of don’t drink wine but oh yeah drink wine!
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We have travelled that same route, Elizabeth. I am getting very tired of it now, and less tolerant of this rubbish as I get older. Those scientists should be doing something useful with their time, and the resources available to them.
Best wishes, Pete,
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It’s great new advice is being discovered all the time but in the end with John everything in moderation and you and Cindy with we’re all gonna die anyway so better start living. If that’s red wine, a burger or a kale leaf then go for it! 🙂
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I made it to 65, not worrying about anything. That’s more than I expected.
Cheers, Lloyd.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I’m about to enjoy my second, and last, cup of coffee for the day. Think I’ll fry some eggs and bacon to go with it.
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Seems to me that you do very well in life, Peggy. Keep enjoying anything you like, and ignore the ‘studies’.
Best wishes, Pete.
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When these press trots out these summaries of scientific studies, half-digested and misrepresented, I note the recommendation, follow it, and then do the exact opposite on the next day. I call it, in my latest “how to live better” book, “Robbie Teel’s Alternating Current of Life Method”. And I feel pretty good, not because my health is better, but because it sells books, and then I can afford to go out and get beer and a cheeseburger.
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I will join you in that beer and cheeseburger one of these days, Robert. Or I might make mine a red wine! Best wishes, Pete.
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I am skeptical of the medical reports I hear about. Even in the event that there may to some truth to the reports, what is true for one person may not be true for another. Not all people have the same response to the foods or other things in these studies. I think a good rule of thumb is common sense and moderation.
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Nicely put, Michelle. We are all different, and do not tolerate the same things in the same way. Studies are too general, and rarely allow for other lifestyle influences.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I am reminded of a quote from my fav Woody Allen movie, “Annie Hall”- “Sun is bad for you. Everything our parents said was good is bad. Sun, milk, red meat, college.”
Thankfully, I love drinking coffee, so at least for this week I can believe I’ll live longer than those who don’t! :p
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Love ‘Annie Hall’. Good call TTT.
Best wishes, Pete.
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What’s good today is bad for tomorrow and visa versa. That’s why I often tell people that ‘living can be hazardous to your health’!!
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Next week, something else will ‘kill you’. So much for bogus science, GP!
Best wishes, Pete.
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hahaha
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Next week a study will say coffee’s bad for you and you’ll die 18% earlier than tea drinkers!!
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You got that 100% right, Andrew!
Best wishes, Pete.
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These studies drive me absolutely crazy! Why don’t they funnel all the money going into them towards cures for things like heart disease, cancer, ALS, and selfishly I’m going to say migraines. As others have already said, the most successful approach is MODERATION.
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I would like to say that I live life in moderation, but it would be a lie. But these reports drive me crazy too, Kim. No doubt there will be another one tomorrow, telling us to eat rat poo, to live until we are 100! 🙂
Best wishes as always, Pete.
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IT is true! After the life I have led and I made it to 70 is nothing short of a miracle and in all that time I drank and drink coffee by the gallon….so it has got to be true! LOL chuq
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Chuq, I confess I thought of you, when I watched this report. You had better get ready to live to 100!
Best wishes, Pete.
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Geez now I wish I had taken better care of myself when I was younger…LOL chuq
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Don’t worry, you won’t even remember who you are! 🙂
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Reblogged this on John Liming. Blog and commented:
Over the years it seems to me that The Medical Profession has changed their minds back and forth on a number of health-related issues until now it is very difficult to know what to believe. This post by Beetley Pete is priceless!
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Thanks very much, John. I left a comment on your blog.
Best wishes, Pete.
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And now we know why they always refer to the Medical Profession as “Practice!”
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You got that right, John! 🙂
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🙂 Well I have the odd cup of coffee now and then, especially if there’s cream involved. But tea, now there’s proper medicine!
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More coffee needed, if you want to be one of the 8% of women who lived longer.
Forget about that crap though, and enjoy your tea! (With a nice cigarette…)
Best wishes, Pete.
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I think that the BBC (and all other media outlets, probably) have mis-represented the report.
They didn’t say drinking coffee will make you live longer. They said that people who, 16 years ago, said that they drank more coffee have a better chance of being alive now. No one knows how much coffee these people have been drinking, whether they increased or decreased their consumption the past 16 years or what has caused them to have a very marginal increase in life expectancy.
These press reports come from university publicity departments. Researchers do their research and publish their findings. The publicity department adds a modicum of sensationalism and issues a press release. This gets picked up by the media who have hours of 24 hour news to fill and the university can demonstrate that they are doing important research. And this helps them to attract research grants to do more research and so attract more funds for the university to pay the vice chancellors’ huge salary and so the cycle repeats.
As always, it pays to follow the money.
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Follow the money indeed, Ian. Follow it to some coffee growers, I reckon!
Thanks for the extra detail.
Cheers, Pete.
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There seems to be some great desire to categorise every single thing into those that will kill you, and those that will make you live longer.
Unfortunately, most things belong in both categories.
We can be sure of one thing, though; something will kill you!
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Don’t we both know that for sure, Ian!
Never thought I would see 65. I’ve been on borrowed time since I was 57!
Cheers,Pete.
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…which leads me to say I’ve been on borrowed time since I was born!
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But we are all glad you made it so far, Sarah! x
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(I’ll pay you later.)
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You always told me you wouldn’t get past 40.
It must that variable East Anglian climate that’s keeping you going!
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I pushed that to 57, when I got past 50. Not working is the key to living longer, of that I am sure. Just ask the Queen, and The Duke of Edinburgh!
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This is a time where you and I are in total agreement. I took birth control pills for a decade and I developed blood clots which went through my lungs and out my heart (luckily) which have altered my life forever. Whatever you take today will affect you down the road. Food and drink is a failure for me. It’s hard to do any of it in moderation. I don’t take many meds and try to have a positive attitude about life. I’ll drop dead when I’m supposed to. 😉
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Glad to hear it, Cindy. You always come across as very positive indeed.
Best wishes, Pete.
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So eat, drink, and be merry! That’s what I do. We recently got a defibrillator at work and I told my boss not to dare ever use it on me. One and done is my motto!
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I used defibrillators on many people, for most of my time as an EMT. What they don’t tell you is that they are also part of the ‘great lie’. They are rarely effective, and although they are much lauded for getting people into A&E with a discernible ‘output’, very few fully recover later.
Best wishes, Pete.
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That’s frightening to hear but I’d rather know than not.
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Like a lot of ‘medical innovations’, Sarah, they appease bystanders, and give the ambulance crew something to do. As long as you are perceived to be doing something, you get less hassle. A defib will only shock ventricular fibrillation back into a normal rhythm. It will not reverse asystole. (flat line)
And asystole is what presents, in the majority of cases of cardiac arrest. The figures are shamelessly manipulated, to give false hope to people. Of course, they would NEVER admit that, but fortunately, I was actually there…x
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Thanks for the explanation, Pete.
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Doctors are one group that fails to use four words in the following order: “I do not know.”
Warmest regards, Theo
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Most of these so-called experts are research chemists. They almost never see a person, just pages of statistics. Makes me furious!
Best wishes, Pete.
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Hi Pete! Been drinking coffee ALL MY LIFE!! Too late to stop now! Oh! I don’t have to!! No wonder I’ve lived this long!
🙂
Best from Florida
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Have another cup, Frank. You might well live a month longer!
Best wishes, Pete. 🙂
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oh i hear you, Pete! i believe moderation is the key. cheers! 🙂
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Apparently, you can now drink as much coffee as you want. No doubt it will be poison again, next week.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I’ve been in a similar state after hearing that report yesterday. Your rant is so perfect that I don’t have to! Thank you, Pete. As you were, sir! x
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Two minds, Sarah…X
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I really enjoyed this post, Pete, because I’d just read that coffee study, and was annoyed by exactly the same thing! Also, who pays for all these studies, i wonder?
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In this case, Marina, I am going to guess it was funded by the coffee industry! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Well said, Pete! And I’m all for moderation, so I can still eat the things I enjoy!
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Thanks, Sue. I am eagerly awaiting the rebuttal of the coffee study, from the opposition ‘experts’.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Well, I would want to know what the parameters were, the control group etc etc….
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You would probably have to pay for a copy of the report. To help them fund the next ‘fascinating study’…
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Study reports cost money, yes
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Pete, I love the studies that told us how fatty Avocados were – so bad for you – then it was decided that those are, in fact, “GOOD” fats – the kinds of fats that you need for good health. I am happy that medical studies continue to uncover new advice – I will, however, just follow the advice of “moderation in everything means you’ll never overdo anything”
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I hope you apply that moderation to burger consumption, John! 🙂
Don’t get me started on the ‘good fat/bad fat’ debate…
Best wishes, Pete.
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