Periodically NewMexiKen smacks the carafe from the coffee maker against the side of the sink while washing it and cracks the glass. I shop around for a replacement carafe, eventually get frustrated at the impossibility of a good match, and just buy a new coffee maker. This happens about every three years and it happened again a few weeks ago.
This time I decided I would get fancy. I would get a stainless steel carafe rather than a glass one. And I would get a coffee maker with a built-in grinder. And so I did. I mean if you can spend $3 or $4 on a foo-foo coffee drink at Starbucks, I can spend $100 for a coffee maker, right? (And I know some people have $300 coffee makers.)
Two mornings in, I must say the coffee is very good, even if there are more steps than Henry Ford had on his assembly line. (There are a lot of parts.) But, bottom line, you add the beans, add the water, add a filter, and turn the button. Voila! In four minutes some really good coffee.
I learned that you should buy the beans every two weeks or less. If you need to buy them less often, freeze the beans in airtight containers in one or two week portions. Once you take them out of the freezer, keep them in an airtight container at room temperature. Putting beans or ground coffee repeatedly into the freezer or refrigerator is not a good idea. Condensation that damages the beans results every time you remove the container.
The coffee I am drinking today is New Mexico Piñon Coffee. As Cabeza de Vaca, the first European ever in these parts said, “There are in that country, small pine trees and the cones are like small eggs, but the seeds are better than those of Castille.” (The piñon nuts are added to medium roast coffee.)
And there is this:
“Drinking caffeinated coffee was found to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by as much as 60% in a newly published study that included people at high risk for the disease.” (WebMD)
What if however, you load it up with saturated fat and sugar, like most coffee drinkers I observe, particularly at Starbucks and similar places. Does the caffeine counteract the rush of blood sugar and the elevated triglycerides?
Not all studies agree with WebMD. The Science News reports: “… James D. Lane and his colleagues at Duke University Medical Center have just released findings that among men and women with type 2 diabetes—the form typically referred to as adult-onset—caffeine ingestion significantly impairs the body’s control of blood sugar and insulin after a meal. In related work, Terry E. Graham of the University of Guelph, Canada, and his co-workers observed the same effect in obese men. Although none of the Canadian volunteers were diabetic, obesity is a leading predisposing risk factor for development of type 2 diabetes. (www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040807/food.asp)
And this from American Diabetes Association: The researchers found that, in all groups, taking a pill with the same amount of caffeine as 2-3 cups of coffee resulted in a significant decrease in glucose uptake, which caused a rise in blood glucose levels. After exercise, glucose uptake was slightly better, but eating or drinking caffeine was still linked with a significant decline in glucose uptake.
The researchers studied a small group of white, middle-aged men with similar lifestyles. Because the subjects were similar, it is difficult to apply the study’s findings to other people.
Caffeine is linked with a decline in the body’s ability to turn glucose into energy, regardless of exercise, obesity, or type 2 diabetes.
In this study, caffeine was taken in a pill. The results of this study do not apply to coffee, which contains many other substances (potassium, antioxidants, and magnesium) that seem to help people with type 2 diabetes. More studies are needed to look at the long-term effects of caffeine, taken in any form, on the body’s use of glucose and blood glucose levels.
Lets face it, stimulants are probably not good for the body.
Quoting from your comment: “In this study, caffeine was taken in a pill. The results of this study do not apply to coffee, which contains many other substances (potassium, antioxidants, and magnesium) that seem to help people with type 2 diabetes.”
For the record, NewMexiKen does (and always has) taken his coffee without cream or sugar or whiskey.
after hurricane frederick ripped thru mobile, alabama, the bounty of the country flowed generously into our torn-up city. my roommate and i volunteered at catholic social services to help distribute food and clothes to the city’s hardest-hit population, and we were allowed at the end of the day to pick some things from the warehouse by way of compensation for work.
i remember choosing a pair of boots and a can of coffee. the boots were nothing special, now just a shadow of a memory on the dustbin of recollection. but the coffee….ah, the coffee! in those days –before gourmet coffees had caught the public’s imagination– it was weird to discover a coffee from hawaii, a coffee called kona. and since that day, coffee has never been the same for either karen or me.