Well, apparently our next few months will be spent answering questions about this court ruling. First thing to remember is that rulings by courts have no informative value in terms of what reality is; it only means the plaintiff was able to successfully get a ruling in their favor.
In the case of the coffee cancer warning, the ruling means that studies that show that feeding
acrylamide (a natural substance occurring in many foods, and coffee after roasting) in very high doses (1,000-100,000 times the amount people get through their diet) into mice can cause cancer, trump the evidence that coffee can help people live longer (as a recent NIH study confirmed), because nobody has yet performed a study that PROVES that mice live longer when they drink coffee :-)
(Note: For decades people avoided saccharin artificial sweetener because of studies done on rats, until more recent studies showed that the physiology of rats is different enough from humans that saccharin actual poses no known risk. Studies of this type are becoming increasingly suspect.)
Now we are getting tons of inquiries as to whether our coffee has acrylamide. Of course it does. All coffee that is roasted does. (Acrylamide is found in hundreds of foods, such as prunes, cereals, roasted potatoes, etc.) So now it is up to consumers whether they want to believe studies that show mice get cancer when injected with it are more valuable than the many studies done by the NIH and the National Cancer Institute and others, that show that coffee is overall a healthy contributor to diet.
Since the media will go absolute rabid with articles about the cancer warning, we don't need to provide links to that here. Instead, for any of our customers who would like more information, we suggest these links that support the overall health benefits of coffee:
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-study-finds-coffee-drinkers-have-lower-risk-death
www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeinated-coffee-the-anti-cancer-wonder-drug
We will also reproduce here the conclusion of the NIH study (the National Institute of Health is largely considered the most reliable agency in the country regarding consumer health):
"Older adults who drank coffee — caffeinated or decaffeinated — had a
lower risk of death overall than others who did not drink coffee,
according a study by researchers from the National Cancer Institute
(NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and AARP.
Coffee drinkers were less likely to die from heart disease,
respiratory disease, stroke, injuries and accidents, diabetes, and
infections, although the association was not seen for cancer. These
results from a large study of older adults were observed after
adjustment for the effects of other risk factors on mortality, such as
smoking and alcohol consumption. Researchers caution, however, that they
can't be sure whether these associations mean that drinking coffee
actually makes people live longer. The results of the study were
published in the May 17, 2012 edition of the New England Journal of
Medicine."
And also this study by Swedish institute:
"Coffee drinkers enjoy not only the taste of their coffee but also a
reduced risk of cancer with their cuppa. New research shows that
drinking coffee specifically reduces the risk of antiestrogen-resistant
estrogen-receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer. "
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110510211602.htm
And this one from American Gastroenterological Association:
"Coffee consumption reduces risk of hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver cancer, by about 40 percent, according to an up-to-date meta-analysis. Further, some data indicate that three cups of coffee per day reduce liver cancer risk by more than 50 percent."
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Currently, the U.S. federal government
does not classify acrylamide as a carcinogen when it’s in food.
If consumers have concerns about acrylamine, which apparently is the new latest thing to worry about, note that it is primarily formed when applying the highest heat. Which means that Dark Roast coffee will have more than Light Roast. It also means that green bean extracts are not considered a source of the substance because the beans are boiled at 212 degrees F.
Consumers have a confusing volume of studies and facts to face in learning about the health of coffee. It's a personal decision that we will all need to make as to what evidence we believe.
We personally believe that coffee is not a miracle drug that can cure cancer. We also don't believe that anybody has ever shown evidence of coffee in humans causing increased mortality. We think that in the end, it will be decided that coffee has many health-giving properties that seem to balance out any negative effects. Only time will tell if our own beliefs will be shown to be true, and the debate will probably go back and forth forever. Meanwhile, we will brew ourselves a delicious cup of COFFEE and carry on.
If you decide to avoid coffee because of acrylamide, you might want to just stop eating altogether. Here is a partial list of products with acrylamides: prunes, cereals (the biggest source in the American diet), bread, crackers, roasted potatoes, roasted nuts, olives, cocoa & chocolate, chili, tortillas, frogs legs, candied yams, pretzels, popcorn, veggie chips (has 6x as much as roasted coffee), peanut butter, pecan frangipan, pies, onion soup, Terra veggie chips... and my personal favorite, Lamb Weston Inland Valley Fajita Fries (not!).
We have campaigned for Direct Trade since our founding in 2005, and the noise we created seems to be helping bring about a sea change in the way buyers are seeing producers. Dozens of wonderful programs have opened up to empower farmers by improving their crops and methods and giving them access to major markets. Some of these programs are run by the large milling companies, who are beginning to realize (belatedly) that what is good for farmer communities is good for their own business. Others are run by third-party groups who make this their mission.
