Live data from Hacker News

Consumption of a dark roast coffee blend reduces DNA damage in humans

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

11–20 of 170 posts

Re: Consumption of a dark roast coffee blend reduces DNA damage in humans

#13
post #9
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coffee contains water. If water is harmful, coffee will be just as harmful unless it has protective effects. In any case, you can't say they "established that drinking water damages DNA" and then go on to argue that they should establish it with another study about water.

It's not clear to me that the control group drank 500ml of boiled water. If they're drinking cold tap water, it could be that the act of boiling the water yields the desired effect. If they're drinking bottled water (and if the instructions said "drink 500ml of water", this would be my first inclination) then maybe the DNA damage is being caused by plastic that's leaching into the water as opposed to any preventative…

If it's the plastic, then we need follow up studies comparing people drinking coffee in plastic cup vs paper cups vs other non plastic non paper glassware!

Re: Consumption of a dark roast coffee blend reduces DNA damage in humans

#14
post #10

If we had even 1 honest meta-analysis for every 10 trials like this, well, we'd know more than we do now. Small trials with inconsistent/poor designs are the bane of medical science. That said, I drink dark roast so this study must be true.

Here is nice meta study of coffee and cancer risk (dna damage and cancer are probably linked). https://www.nature.com/articles/srep33711 > coffee intake was associated with reduced risk of oral, pharynx, liver, colon, prostate, endometrial cancer and melanoma and increased lung cancer risk. (Heh. Smokers drink nearly twice as much coffee as non-smokers. Smoking increases caffeine metabolism. I think this explains the…

To your parenthetical comment: May be unrelated, but totally anecdotal, smokers tend to drink a very light roast that is easily drinkable like a folgers or maxwell house, maybe a coffee shop light roast, like a Dunkin. I don't think smokers are downing cups of Starbucks dark blend and if they are god help their stomachs.

Re: Consumption of a dark roast coffee blend reduces DNA damage in humans

#15
"Funding

This study has been supported by Tchibo GmbH, Hamburg, Germany."

Tchibo is a German chain of coffee retailers and cafés known for its range of non-coffee products that change weekly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tchibo

Number of locations 700 shops (Germany) 300 (rest of world)

They might want to make some in-store claims about Dark Roast...

Re: Consumption of a dark roast coffee blend reduces DNA damage in humans

#17
"The study comprised two periods of 4 weeks: a preconditioning period, with daily consumption of at least 500 ml water but no coffee, nor tea, nor any other caffeine-containing product. During the subsequent intervention period the coffee group consumed 500 ml of freshly brewed dark roast coffee blend per day, the control group consumed water instead."

Apparently, it's caffeine, or perhaps hot beverages (as it doesn't seem like the control drank their water heated).

The information that would help me is an answer to the question: Why?

Re: Consumption of a dark roast coffee blend reduces DNA damage in humans

#18

Odd days: research shows coffee is good for you Even days: research shows coffee is bad for you

It's both good and bad for you depending on which health indicators you look at. People tend to treat "Coffee prevents cancer" and "Coffee raises blood pressure" as if they contradicted each other but really they don't. The whole thing is very dose dependant too. Correlationally life expectancy maxes out at around 3 cups per day but I doubt that's the causal maximum.

Re: Consumption of a dark roast coffee blend reduces DNA damage in humans

#19

"Funding This study has been supported by Tchibo GmbH, Hamburg, Germany." Tchibo is a German chain of coffee retailers and cafés known for its range of non-coffee products that change weekly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tchibo Number of locations 700 shops (Germany) 300 (rest of world) They might want to make some in-store claims about Dark Roast...

I'm generally sceptical of all studies about coffee for this very reason. There's a lot of bullshit studies around food and supplements funded with people with strongly vested interests in selling more product. It's a real problem. For any given supplement, you can often find multiple studies supporting its use and multiple studies saying it's harmful.

When it comes to coffee specifically, if you listen to the studies about coffee, it's some panacea full of anti-oxidants. However, it's a stimulant, it increases cortisol (stress hormone). Stimulants generally makes the body prioritize immediate energy spending over regeneration/healing. There's been a study claiming that caffeine decreases neurogenesis, which should negatively impact both long-term memory and mood.

Re: Consumption of a dark roast coffee blend reduces DNA damage in humans

#20
post #14
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is nice meta study of coffee and cancer risk (dna damage and cancer are probably linked). https://www.nature.com/articles/srep33711 > coffee intake was associated with reduced risk of oral, pharynx, liver, colon, prostate, endometrial cancer and melanoma and increased lung cancer risk. (Heh. Smokers drink nearly twice as much coffee as non-smokers. Smoking increases caffeine metabolism. I think this explains the…

To your parenthetical comment: May be unrelated, but totally anecdotal, smokers tend to drink a very light roast that is easily drinkable like a folgers or maxwell house, maybe a coffee shop light roast, like a Dunkin. I don't think smokers are downing cups of Starbucks dark blend and if they are god help their stomachs.

Anecdotally, I knew a smoker once who liked tea.
Post reply on HN