Among people of various ethnicities and cultures, higher coffee consumption — whether caffeinated or decaffeinated — was associated with all-cause and cause-specific mortality benefits, according to two new studies published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

“Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world and in the U.S. population,” Song-Yi Park, PhD, from the University of Hawai’i Cancer Center, and colleagues wrote. “Therefore, even a small health-promoting effect of coffee could have a substantial impact on public health.”

Researchers for both studies noted that although recent studies have found that higher coffee consumption was associated with lower risk for all-cause death, the relationship between consumption and mortality in nonwhites and diverse European populations is unknown.

The first study, focusing on nonwhite populations in the United States, included 185,855 blacks (17%), Native Hawaiians (7%), Japanese Americans (29%), Latinos (22%) and whites (25%) who were aged between 45 and 75 years at the time of recruitment from 1993 to 1996. Park and colleagues evaluated coffee consumption via a validated food-frequency questionnaire, which was updated approximately every 5 years. A total of 16% of participants reported not drinking coffee, 31% drank one cup a day, 25% drank two to three cups a day, 7% drank four or more cups a day and 21% had irregular coffee drinking habits. Participants were followed until 2012.

During an average follow-up of 16.2 years, 58,397 deaths occurred. After adjusting for smoking and other potential confounders, the researchers identified an association between coffee intake and lower total mortality among those who drank one cup per day (HR = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.85-0.91); two to three cups per day (HR = 0.82; 95% CI, 0.79-0.86); or four or more cups per day (HR = 0.82; 95% CI, 0.78-0.87]). Participants who drank one cup of coffee per day and two to three cups of coffee per day had a 12% and 18%, reduced risk of death, respectively. Both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee produced similar trends, according to the researchers.

The inverse association between coffee consumption and mortality was significant for all ethnic groups studied except Native Hawaiians. Furthermore, never-smokers, participants younger than 55 years and those without chronic disease also demonstrated an inverse relationship. Intake of coffee consumption lowered the risk for death due to heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease.

“Our findings support the recent dietary guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which indicate that moderate coffee consumption can be integrated into a healthy diet and lifestyle, by confirming an inverse association with mortality and suggesting that association’s generalizability to different racial/ethnic groups,” Park and colleagues concluded.

These results can be applied to other ethnic groups without safety concerns because the association was observed in four different ethnicities, Veronica W. Setiawan, PhD, lead author from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, said in a press release.

“This study is the largest of its kind and includes minorities who have very different lifestyles,” Setiawan said. “Seeing a similar pattern across different populations gives stronger biological backing to the argument that coffee is good for you whether you are white, African-American, Latino or Asian.”

“Coffee contains a lot of antioxidants and phenolic compounds that play an important role in cancer prevention,” she continued. “Although this study does not show causation or point to what chemicals in coffee may have this ‘elixir effect,’ it is clear that coffee can be incorporated into a healthy diet and lifestyle.”

“We cannot say drinking coffee will prolong your life, but we see an association,” she added. “If you like to drink coffee, drink up! If you’re not a coffee drinker, then you need to consider if you should start.”

The second study, led by Marc J. Gunter, PhD, from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, focused on coffee intake and mortality risk in European populations, and included 521,330 participants mainly aged 35 years or older from Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Gunter and colleagues recruited these participants between 1992 and 2000.

According to the data, 41,693 participants died during a mean follow-up of 16.4 years. The researchers observed a statistically significant lower all-cause mortality for participants in the highest quartile of coffee intake compared with those who did not drink coffee, among men (HR = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.82-0.95) and women (HR = 0.93; 95% CI, 0.87-0.98). In addition, death due to digestive disease was lower in relation to coffee consumption for both men (HR = 0.41; 95% CI, 0.32-0.54) and women (HR = 0.6; 95% CI, 0.46-0.78). The researchers found a statistically significant inverse relationship between coffee intake and with circulatory disease mortality (HR = 0.78; 95% CI, 0.68-0.9) and cerebrovascular disease mortality (HR = 0.7; 95% CI, 0.55-0.9) among women, as well as a positive association with ovarian cancer mortality (HR = 1.31; 95% CI, 1.07-1.61).

Gunter and colleagues also evaluated whether coffee consumption was associated with serum biomarkers of liver function, inflammation and metabolic health in a subcohort of 14,800 participants. They found that higher intake of coffee was linked to lower serum alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyltransferase, as well as C-reactive protein, lipoprotein(a) and glycated hemoglobin levels in women.

“We found that higher coffee consumption was associated with a lower risk of death from any cause, and specifically for circulatory diseases, and digestive diseases,” Gunter said in a press release. “Importantly, these results were similar across all of the 10 European countries, with variable coffee drinking habits and customs. Our study also offers important insights into the possible mechanisms for the beneficial health effects of coffee.”

“Due to the limitations of observational research, we are not at the stage of recommending people to drink more or less coffee,” he added. “That said, our results suggest that moderate coffee drinking — up to around three cups per day — is not detrimental to your health, and that incorporating coffee into your diet could have health benefits.”

The researchers emphasized that more studies are necessary to determine which compound in coffee may be responsible for benefiting health and to explore the effect of coffee consumption on health outcomes.

“These findings add to a growing body of evidence which indicates that drinking coffee not only is safe, but it may actually have a protective health effect for people,” Elio Riboli, MD, ScM, coauthor of the study from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, said in the release. “While further research is needed, we can be confident that the results from a large European study confirm previous findings seen around the world.”

In an accompanying editorial, Eliseo Guallar, MD, DrPH, from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues note that the relationship between coffee consumption and mortality “was modest and sensitive to confounding.”

“Recommending coffee intake to reduce mortality or prevent chronic disease would be premature,” they wrote. “However, it is increasingly evident that moderate coffee intake up to three to five cups per day or caffeine intake up to 400 mg/d is not associated with adverse health effects in adults and can be incorporated into a healthy diet.” – by Alaina Tedesco

References:

Guallar E, et al. Ann Intern Med. 2017;doi:10.7326/M17-1503.

Gunter MJ, et al. Ann Intern Med. 2017;doi:10.7326/M16-2945.

Park SY, et al. Ann Intern Med. 2017;doi:10.7326/M16-2472.

Disclosure: Park and colleagues report funding from the National Cancer Institute. Gunter and colleagues report funding from the European Commission Directorate-General for Health and Consumers and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Guallar and colleague report no relevant financial disclosures.

source: http://www.healio.com / Healio / Home> Internal Medicine> Nutritional Fitness> In the Journals / July 10th, 2017

Ho Chi Minh City, (Xinhua):

“We are striving to make King Coffee one of world’s top five coffee brands and to make Vietnam a global coffee powerhouse,” the wife of Vietnam’s coffee king told Xinhua.

Le Hoang Diep Thao is the chief executive officer of Ho Chi Minh City-based Trung Nguyen International Corporation (TNI), part of the Trung Nguyen Group (TNG).

Her husband, Dang Le Nguyen Vu, who has been recognized as Vietnam’s coffee king by Forbes Asia and National Geographic Traveler, is the co-founder and co-owner of TNG, a leading coffee firm in Vietnam, specializing in instant coffee, roasted and ground coffee, cafe trading and coffee export.

After the couple successfully brought the G7 coffee brand to more than 60 countries in the world, Thao launched TNI King Coffee and is aiming to conquer the hearts of coffee lovers all over the world, including over 1.3 billion Chinese consumers who are used to drinking tea.

“In the last 20 years, we have focused on the coffee business only. We provide full services, from coffee bean plantation to blending and roasting,” Thao said.

“TNI’s coffee beans are finely chosen from the best coffee beans in Buon Ma Thuot (the capital city of Dak Lak central highland province, Vietnam’s coffee kingdom).

Combined with advanced technology, production equipment imported from Europe, and the secret recipe from Trung Nguyen, TNI coffee is distinctive,” the graceful woman, wearing a long, red traditional dress explained.

In late April, Thao put into operation a big TNI King Coffee factory, with an initial capacity of churning out 9,000 tons of roasted coffee beans and 19,800 tons of instant coffee a year, in the southern province of Binh Duong.

King Coffee has been exported to many countries in the world, including the United States, Australia, Russia, China, India, South Korea and Singapore, and is expected to be available in 129 other markets in the future.

“King Coffee for the king market,” Thao said, implying that China is world’s biggest coffee consumer. In China, King Coffee has advanced to become one of the four best-selling brands on T-Mall Supermarket, one of three key e-commerce websites of online trade platform Alibaba.

In March, at the 96th China Food and Drink Fair held in the Chinese city of Chengdu, Thao announced that TNI will strive to meet its sales target of 1 billion U.S. dollars from the Chinese market in the next few years.

“More and more Chinese young people like to drink coffee and regard it as a casual lifestyle,” Thao stated.

Peter Tsang, Trung Nguyen’s general manager in charge of the Chinese mainland, echoed Thao’s statement, saying the Chinese market’s potentiality is huge and cafes are mushrooming there and becoming indispensable for Chinese youths.

“Most of China’s population is used to drinking tea, but many Chinese people, especially youngsters, like to drink coffee,” he said, adding that Vietnamese coffee exported to China enjoys preferential treatment, including tax incentives.

There are three key factors leading to the success of Trung Nguyen coffee in China, namely Vietnam’s fine coffee beans, the firm’s know-how, and the use of European machines and technologies, Tsang stated.
“We hope that we will attain the sales target of 1 billion U.S dollars in the Chinese market by 2020,” he said.

Now, over 1,000 Trung Nguyen cafés are set up home and abroad.

However, two decades ago, Vu, born in 1971, was a medical student with poor parents. Motivated by the aspiration to make a fortune for himself and his country by selling processed coffee, Vu, in 1996, opened a coffee roasting facility in Dak Lak, with a total workforce of only four, including himself and three of his friends.

Having practically no money or experience, Vu struggled to make his business survive while still having to attend classes. Time went by, and so did the money Vu invested in his small production base. His parents had to sell their own house to contribute capital to the base.

According to local media, Vu, burdened with financial difficulties but wanting to realize his dream, met Thao, a 20-year-old lady, who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth (her father is a gold jewelry tycoon in Buon Ma Thuot), and agreed to marry.

Vietnam, the world’s second biggest coffee exporter after Brazil, shipped 467,000 tons of coffee worth nearly 1.1 billion U.S. dollars overseas in the first quarter of this year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Thao expressed her strong belief that TNI King Coffee will be a huge success, especially in international markets, like the previous brand G7.

“My greatest vision is expanding the Vietnamese brand all over the world, and for it to be able to compete with multinational companies in the coffee industry,” she said.

source: http://www.news.xinhuanet.com / Xinhuanet.com / Home / source: Xinhua / by Tao Jun, Dong Hua / April 28th, 2017

Sao Lourenco, Brazil,(Xinhua) :

A small Brazilian city, once famous for its mineral water springs, is now welcoming tourists with new attractions — a specialty coffee with unique taste and quality.

Besides enjoying the natural beauty of Sao Sourenco, a city located in Brazil’s southeastern state of Minas Gerais, tourists from around the world are also flocking to a coffee shop at the city center to take a sip of the local coffee, which has a history of over 100 years.

The coffee sold in Junior’s shop was grown at a farm located in the mountainous region of southern Minas Gerais, the soil and climatic conditions of which are favorable to coffee growth.

Meanwhile, Sao Lorenco is famous throughout Brazil for its natural spring water, which also helps to explain why the region produces much of the best coffee in the country.

“The coffee here has acidity and sweetness, and does not need sugar,” said Helcio Junior, director and the fourth generation coffee farmer running the coffee shop Unique Cafes.

The good quality of local coffee has greatly boosted the development of tourism in the region, said Junior, who dedicated himself after graduating from university to transforming his family business from a coffee bean exporter to a specialty coffee producer.

In 2005, a coffee sample from the farm won the first place in the “Cup of Excellence,” an annual competition held in several countries to identify the highest quality coffee produced, with a world record of 95.85 points on a scale of 0 to 100.

Brazil is the world’s largest producer and exporter of coffee. Coffee plantations are mainly located in the southeastern states of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Parana.

According to the Brazilian Association for the Coffee Industry, every single major coffee brand uses Brazilian coffee in its blend.

However, Brazil has, for decades, oriented its export of coffee as a commodity instead of a specialty product, therefore it has lost the marketing game when it comes to promoting its own brand.

“I started to roast our own coffee in 2005, when I entered our family business,” Junior said.

“Before that, our company had only planted and produced green coffee beans, and starting to roast coffee means that our own coffee product enters the domestic market,” Junior said.

According to Junior, his family has been exporting coffee beans to Japan, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Canada, Australia and the United States.

“We have entered the Chinese market in recent four to five years, and we have opened a coffee shop in Shanghai,” he said.

Junior believes that his specialty coffee has a promising prospect in the Chinese market.

source: http://www.news.xinhuanet.com / Xinhuanet / Home / source: Xinhua / Editor: Zhou Xin / June 24th, 2017