Coffee Has Unique Cognitive Benefits

Scientists testing coffee against plain caffeine found that plain caffeine only partially reproduces the effects of drinking a cup of coffee, activating areas of the brain that make you feel more alert but not the areas of the brain that affect working memory and goal-directed behavior.

For many people, the day doesn’t start until their coffee mug is empty. Coffee is often thought to make you feel more alert, so people drink it to wake themselves up and improve their efficiency. Portuguese scientists studied coffee-drinkers to understand whether that wakefulness effect is dependent on the properties of caffeine, or whether it’s about the experience of drinking coffee.

“There is a common expectation that coffee increases alertness and psychomotor functioning,” said Prof Nuno Sousa of the University of Minho, corresponding author of the study in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience and Field Chief Editor of the journal. “When you get to understand better the mechanisms underlying a biological phenomenon, you open pathways for exploring the factors that may modulate it and even the potential benefits of that mechanism.”

A caffeine kickstart
The scientists recruited people who drank a minimum of one cup of coffee per day and asked them to refrain from eating or drinking caffeinated beverages for at least three hours before the study. They interviewed the participants to collect sociodemographic data, and then did two brief functional MRI scans: one before and one 30 minutes after either taking caffeine or drinking a standardized cup of coffee. During the functional MRI scans, the participants were asked to relax and let their minds wander.

Because of the known neurochemical effects of drinking coffee, the scientists expected that the functional MRI scans would show that the people who drank coffee had higher integration of networks that are linked to the prefrontal cortex, associated with executive memory, and the default mode network, involved in introspection and self-reflection processes. They found that the connectivity of the default mode network was decreased both after drinking coffee and after taking caffeine, which indicates that consuming either caffeine or coffee made people more prepared to move from resting to working on tasks.  READ MORE...

Paper Coffee Filter & Cholesterol

New data suggest even paper-filtered coffee may raise “bad” LDL cholesterol.

In my video from more than a decade ago called Is Coffee Bad for You?, I explained that the “cholesterol-raising factor from…coffee does not pass [through] a paper filter.” 

As I discuss in my recent video Does Coffee Affect Cholesterol?, if you give people French press coffee, which is filtered but without paper, their cholesterol starts swelling up within just two weeks, as you can see below and at 0:22 in the video. 

But, if you switch them to paper-filtered coffee, their cholesterol comes right back down. It’s the same amount of coffee, just prepared differently.

The cholesterol-raising factor from coffee beans has since been identified as the fatty substances in the oil within coffee beans. 

One reason it took us so long to figure that out is that they didn’t raise cholesterol in rats, hamsters, or even in monkeys, but did in human beings, as you can see below and at 0:45 in my video.       READ MORE...

Coffee Needs

 

French Press Coffee

I've used a French press to brew my morning coffee for years, mostly because it's inexpensive and easy, but also because I like a rich, viscous brew. When a friend bought me a pourover kit for my birthday a few years ago, I quickly embraced the meditative ritual of repeatedly saturating coffee grounds with hot water from that elegant, gooseneck kettle; plus, I liked the cleaner, brighter cup it yielded. Alas, life got in the way again, as it so often does, and I went back to setting and forgetting it with the ole French press.

Over time, I've unriddled a few secrets to a better French press brew. I always start with whole-bean coffee, which I coarsely grind. I like using filtered water, and I always steep the grounds for exactly five minutes.

Seeking some more professional tips, I called on Bailey Manson, innovation manager at Chicago-based Intelligentsia. I did so sheepishly, knowing that Manson is a pourover-coffee lifer who's dedicated his career to unearthing impeccably extracted brews. I also knew for those very reasons that there might be no one better to ask.  READ MORE

Starbucks

 I happen to like Starbucks coffee and while it may be a little pricey...  I still like to purchase it, especially when I am given a Starbucks card to use...

I always get the same thing:  a large vanilla cappuccino...

Commode Sitting

Sitting on the commode can, for most of us, be both a refreshing as well as a humiliating experience, not to mention a religious experience as we wait for our normal biological functions to take place or kick in with the assistance of other substances that have by themselves have created a multi million dollar industry.

Fortunately, some of us or quite possibly many of us, have discovered that being as natural as we can be, is the best source to achieve daily satisfaction....  and, over the years, I have discovered that this process is best facilitated by the consumption of grains and vegetables but not necessarily fruits as some would contend...  unless those fruits fall into the PRUNE category.

I have also discovered to my personal satisfaction that coffee works remarkably well which is why my first course of action each morning is to consume at least two YETI mugs of coffee each morning although I hardly get through the second mug before nature comes a callin' and I fast-walk to the nearest water closet.

My current source of caffeine comes from McCafe Coffee Pods that I usually buy in the decaf variety but if none are available then I water-down regular coffee and am able to achieve the same results.  so.............

HAPPY COMMODE SITTING...

Friday Evening in the Valley

While many of my neighbors are celebrating the no facemask
required announcement by going places without wearing their facemasks, I am simple sitting at home enjoying the day with my Siamese cat, Piper, named after the actor and the fact that I needed a 2 syllable name.

My Friday started with coffee and Cappuccino Mix and Fox News with Bill Hemmer and his female cohost whose name I cannot remember but who is not impressive because she talks too fast...  although, I am sure that some people like that style.

SOS for the most part, so I switched the channel to Below Zero about people supposedly living OFF THE GRID in Alaska, but all those damn shows are scripted, so you gotta take the "reality" part with a grain of salt.

Once my body was satiated with a sufficient amount of coffee, I finished sanding down the wall that I had fixed with spackling and after making sure that it was a smooth as a baby's butt, I let my wife know that it was ok to paint...  a chore which I would do if she did not care to do it.

I've always hated that phrase, "I don't care to do it," because to me it means I don't want to do it but to the people in this area, it means I don't mind doing it...  it is all rather confusing to a North Carolinian.

Next, I vacuumed our outside pool which is stupid to say it that way since very few people in these parts have inside pools...  and poured some kind of crap into the pool that the pool people gave us because something in the water was either too high or too low.  I did not have to mix it with anything, just walked around its perimeter and sprinkled a little bit at a time into the pool.

WIth that done, it was time for my first meal of the day...  oatmeal, peaches, and cinnamon but only 1/2 cup of dry ingredients which is heart healthy and only 175 calories.

This meal allowed me to start working on my blogs and the novel I am writing which took me into mid afternoon and I had my first snack of rice cakes and unsweetened tea.  For about 90 minutes I watched 2 episodes (fast forwarding through the commercials) of Ancient Aliens and got especially interested in the Book of Enoch that was left out of the Christian Bible.  It had some very interesting shit in it about a group of extraterrestrials called the Watchers getting humans pregnant and their off springs were these damn giants...  even the Bible mentions giants as well as Enoch even though it don't include his book.  

I know I should have used doesn't instead of don't but I felt a little frisky...

Second snack was then consumed of a 1/8 portion of a small brick of cheese and 5 saltine crackers...  totaling 160 calories.

If you don't give a shit about my caloric intake then just read past it.

Once my second snack was "down the hatch," I proceeded to do a little more research on The Dead Sea Scrolls and Spectral Imaging which can bring out words even after the page is burned...  now that is some cool shit.

Black beans, corn, diced tomatoes, rice, onion, peppers, mushrooms, and garlic is my last meal recording a whopping 320 calories but my daily overall total still remains under 1,600 and my range these days is 1,400 to 1,800.

The day concludes with me checking my stats on my four blogs, setting the thermostat to turn on the air, and writing this last post...

Is this a typical Friday?

Yes...  it is when I am at at home in the Valley...

I have been mowing my lawn on Thursdays this time around instead of Fridays or the weekend because we left early Friday morning several weeks ago for our first of many vacations after the pandemic lost its power over us.  And, I am still waiting for the world to get PISSED OFF at China...  but I doubt that will ever happen.

Darkness outside my window cause me to flip the light switch and now Piper and I have some light by which to see each other.

Tomorrow will be a brief day outside as we lower the steps down into the pool and stake up a dozen tomato plants that were planted a couple of days ago.  Other than that, I plan to spend the rest of the day inside, piddling around with my writing and eating my low calorie meals and snacks.

But, what the hell, it gives this retired Veteran something to do each day and I don't have to spend any time at all at work refusing to KISS THE ASS of my supervisor.

Changing Forecast

In just a day or two since last I looked, the weather forecast has changed from sunny all week to rain today and tomorrow and sunny for the rest of the week...  and, on the surface of it all...  that really does not bother me because all I want to do (especially before it gets too humid to do so) is sit on my screened-in back porch and write articles for my blogs and perhaps write down a poem or two as the mood strikes me...

Rain...  and depending upon how it falls will cause me to return to the insides of our home...  and, I know the commercials on television recently make a big deal about home...  being inside one's home is not the same as being outside in the fresh air...  I guess because we have been inside the home all winter and need to get outside.

The weather station is reporting a temperature of 65 degrees for our area and while that is good for T-shirts and sandals, I am sitting on my deck with a T-shirt covered with a sweatshirt hoody...  as it feels a lot damn colder than 65.

I was planning to mow the lawn later tonight but with the rain and the cool temps for the next 2 days, I doubt if I'll be able to mow it by late Thursday night...  which is not good because then I have a bunch of grass clippings that need to be disposed and that is extra work...  I don't mind work...  but extra work is BS.

I am on my second YETI mug of coffee...  each mug holds 3 cups, so when this one is gone, I will have consumed 6 cups of coffee and ordinarily, I would be wired...  but, my coffee intake these days is DECAF...  which takes like piss or what I might imagine piss to take like since I have not really tasted piss myself...  but, after several years of drinking DECAF, one gets used to it and now regular coffee does not taste right.

Morning With Coffee

Saturday morning in the Valley is beginning with a cool breeze and a clarity of sight that comes from an infusion of decaf coffee laced with two spoons of sugar free Cappuccino Mix that has been stirred to perfection and poured into a YETI cup with a mail ordered handle that sits with me wherever I go...

I am the proud owner of 2 YETI cups...  one is used for water and a varieties of cold teas and one is used for coffee and Cappuccino Mix.  My wife has 2 YETI cups as well that she uses for water and Diet Pepsi...

We both have found that we prefer the taste of Pepsi of Coke and have performed our taste taste several times when we are in restaurants or other establishments that do not serve Pepsi products.

In fact, after several years of drink Diet Pepsi, drinking a regular Pepsi actually tastes terrible to me as it is oftentimes seen as TOO SWEET.

However, I became a fan of Pepsi when I was in the Navy and we were crossing the Atlantic on our way to a 6 month MED CRUISE and the rocking of the boat was making a bunch of us sailors nauseous...  a seasoned naval veteran suggested that I drink a soft drink and eat some saltine crackers... I followed his advice and it worked...  the only available soft drink was Pepsi.

I don't drink any kind of soft drink anymore as I read somewhere that there is an ingredient in soft drinks that prevents the body from losing weight...  and, ever since I stopped smoking cigarettes at the age of 40, I have had to be conscious of my weight.

So much for memories...

I Must Be Crazy

I can see my reflection on the monitor screen as my laptop boots us...  an old face, deep set brown eyes with wrinkles at the corners,  a grey toboggan covering my head and forehead under the hood of a heavy duty, fleeced lined sweatshirt zippered half way up...  even though my laptop is 5 years old it still boots up rather quickly and instantly I am connected to the internet as if someone had played a magic trick on me...  wool socks with leather soles are on both feet and except for my hands, I feel rather warm and toasty to be sitting outside on my back porch deck in weather less than 40...  

A light rain makes concentric rings as it hits standing water and for a moment or two, I watch them disperse and disappear as other drops of rain takes their place in my time and space...  a cooling cup of coffee in a paper cup from McD's is on my left side with McCafe spelled out in brown letters...  our fat (due to steroids for congestion) yellow cat joins me on the deck wanting to continue its way outside but changes his mind when he sees all the rain...  and, the heat from all my clothes makes me sweat a little and for another moment I wonder how long it will be before I decide to go back inside and quit enjoying all this nice weather...

On the other side of my deck rails are the stumps of the bushes I cut down about 2-3 feet above the ground and while I cannot see them from my vantage point, I am just as confident that they are still there as I am that they will again grow tall in the spring of this new year...  a 4X4 treated post stands firm in the ground and supports a blue bird house I made out of the old decking I replaced this year and while there are no inhabitants, I have seen a couple checking it out as a possibility...

Neighbor's leaves have once again blown into my back yard and as soon as it stops raining and the grass dries out, I will again mow that area for the third time...  and, while it is a tad annoying to do this each year, it does help my grass grow strong...  and, as I stop to reflect upon it all, I notice the rain is still falling and the sounds that it makes when it hits an object seems to be getting stronger and stronger...  as if the rain is going to replace the early snow that feel a few days ago...  and, even though it did not last that long on the ground, it was still early and not being a farmer, I have no way of knowing if that is a good sign or not...

And...  while it may seem a little funny to you or even weird, I still do not feel the least bit cold...  not even my bare typing fingers...  the rain has decided to increase and there is no doubts about it...  falling like it does during a typical summer shower...   and, while this is good for the 3 new spots that we sowed grass seed, it is not good for the one task that I was going to perform outside today...  and, while its delay will not bother me...  it will bother the other resident who lives in this house with me...

My second cup of coffee tastes as good as the first and I am not sure what I am doing, if anything, differently to have all this good luck...  but, it would appear that the rain is starting to subside and I really must go and start what I need to do so I can finish before this cup of coffee gets cold...

Well... did ya???