To judge by recent headlines, coffee could be the latest health-food craze, right up there with broccoli and whole-wheat bread.
从近期的新闻标题来看,咖啡或许正引领着最新的健康饮食潮流,同样榜上有名的还有西兰花和全麦面包。
But don't think you'll be healthier graduating from a tall to a venti just yet. While there has been a splash of positive news about coffee lately, there may still be grounds for concern.
不过,别以为把手中的咖啡从中杯升级到超大杯,你就会变得更健康。尽管最近有关咖啡有些好消息,但或许我们还是有担心的理由。
This month alone, an analysis in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that people who drink three to four cups of java a day are 25% less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who drink fewer than two cups. And a study presented at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting found that men who drink at least six cups a day have a 60% lower risk of developing advanced prostate cancer than those who didn't drink any.
仅仅在去年12月一个月的时间里,首先是《内科学档案》(Archives of Internal Medicine)的一篇分析报告发现,每天饮用三到四杯咖啡的人比每天喝少于两杯咖啡的人患II型糖尿病的几率要低25%.此外,美国癌症研究学会 (American Association for Cancer Research)会议上的一项研究表明,每天饮用至少六杯咖啡的男性比从来不喝咖啡的男性患晚期前列腺癌的几率要低60%.
Earlier studies also linked coffee consumption with a lower risk of getting colon, mouth, throat, esophageal and endometrial cancers. People who drink coffee are also less likely to have cavities, gallstones, cirrhosis of the liver, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, or to commit suicide, studies have found. Last year, researchers at Harvard University and the University of Madrid assessed data on more than 100,000 people over 20 years and concluded that the more coffee they drank, the less likely they were to die during that period from any cause.
早前的研究还认为饮用咖啡有可能会降低患结肠癌、口腔癌、喉癌、食道癌和子宫内膜癌的风险。研究发现,喝咖啡的人患龋齿、胆结石、肝硬化、帕金森氏症、老年痴呆症以及自杀的概率也较低。去年,哈佛大学(Harvard University)和马德里大学(University of Madrid)的研究人员对10多万人超过二十年的数据进行了分析,并且得出了这样的结论:喝咖啡越多,这些人在研究阶段里死于疾病的可能性就越小。
But those studies come on the heels of older ones showing that coffee-particularly the caffeine it contains-raises blood pressure, heart rate and levels of homocysteine, an amino acid in blood that is associated with stroke and heart disease. Pregnant women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day have a higher rate of miscarriages and lower birth-weight babies; caffeine has also been linked to benign breast lumps and bone loss in elderly women. And, as many people can attest, coffee can also aggravate anxiety, irritability, heartburn and sleeplessness, which brings its own set of problems, including a higher risk of obesity. Yet it's just that invigorating buzz that other people love and think they can't get through the day without.
但是,上述研究之前的研究结果表明,咖啡──尤其是其中的咖啡因成份──会让血压升高、心跳加快,还会提高血液里一种与中风和心脏病有关联的氨基酸同型半胱氨酸的水平。每天喝两杯或两杯以上咖啡的孕妇流产几率更高,所生婴儿体重较轻的比例也会高一些。咖啡因还被认为与良性乳房肿块和老年女性的骨质疏松有关。此外,正如许多人深有体会的那样,咖啡还会加重人们的焦躁易怒情绪、胃灼热以及失眠状况,而这将带来一系列的问题,其中包括更高的肥胖风险。然而,正是咖啡能令人精神焕发的传言让一些人爱不释手,并将咖啡视为每天都不可或缺的东西。