Throughout its history, it’s been cast as either the elixir of the gods or the devil’s brew. It’s currently being offered as a diabetes preventative and athletic performance enhancer, and simultaneously being cautioned against as a possibly addictive substance, contributing to irregular heartbeat, hardening of the blood vessels, high blood pressure, and mineral loss. Its dual personalities might not be of such concern were it not coffee, the beverage which is as much a given in 21st century culture as the fossil fuels which drive that culture.
The controversy over coffee consumption has been raging since its rich dark brew first seeped from the Port of Mocha in Yemen into Europe, via the merchants of Venice, in the late sixteenth century. Because the religion of Islam forbids the use of alcoholic beverages, the Arabs had developed such a passion for coffee that it became known as the “Wine of Arabia”. And the reputation of its stimulating effects preceded it to Europe, where, with the memories of the Crusades still lingering, it was regarded as a demonic brew. Even though there were no specific laws forbidding coffee consumption among the Christian churches, its connection to Islam was enough reason for some priests to call coffee the “drink of Satan”, demanding that it be banned. But coffee’s standing in Europe went from almost untouchable to Christian respectability in 1600, when Pope Clement sampled it, and if reports can accurately survive four centuries, announced, ”This drink of Satan is so delicious that it would be a shame to leave it to the Infidels. Let us confound Satan by blessing it.”
So, what to make of this bipolar thing we call coffee? About 50% of coffee drinkers have a gene which lets them produce a protein, CYP1A2, and quickly metabolize caffeine; and about 50% of them don’t. For those with the properly functioning gene, coffee and caffeine are both stimulant and health food. For slow metabolizers, caffeine lingers and builds up in the system, and increases blood pressure and the risk of heart attack. The faults, it seems, lie not in the coffee, but in ourselves.
