The Meaning.

I decided to research a little bit about he actual meaning of the word "coffee" and stumbled upon this article. I was really surprised to discover that the word coffee can be traced back to the Arabic language, specifically the word 'Qahwah' which in Arabic means "coffee drink."And, that at one time the word actually meant something that was defined as "dark stuff" or sometimes even wine! The article also goes on to explain that many different cultures have had many different words for the drink and that at time it was a controversial topic because the spelling of the word, which for a time was a variation of kahua", "kahoueh", "kaffa" or "kahwa, has been changed so many times.

I think it's so cool that the drink as we know it today is something completely different than when it was first invented, and that the word has been around for years, changing over time with people and time periods. Even today, we have different nicknames for coffee such as the title of this very blog, Java!

Here's the article so that you can read more..."Origin of the Word Coffee"

It's Not That Bad :)

To further add to my previous post about whether or not caffeine (mostly commonly found coffee) is a health hazard, I have included two articles that tell the postive sides of drinking coffee/ caffeine.

The first article, "Coffee:The Good News Is Filtering Through" explains how much of the hype over the negative effects of caffeine is mostly geared towards people who drink an extremely abnormal amount of coffee per day, proving that everyone who drinks their cup of coffee in the morning (like me) should not have to panic about developing some weird disease that stems from caffeine. The article also gives a couple of examples of how caffeine can actually be useful!

The second article, "Coffee controversy: Does a Cup of Joe really give you the jolt and boost you desire?" is just a funny article that makes light of the whole debate, stressing the fact that there is nothing wrong with having a cup of coffee in the morning to feel that little extra boost that most people need after a long night.

I'll let you guys decide for yourself about the whole debate, but as for me, you'll still catch me in class with my morning cup of joe!

Caffeine Controversy

For years there has been an on-going controversy over whether or not coffee is unhealthy because of its main ingrediet:caffeine. Some people firmly believe that coffee has no beneficial effects and only cause problems later on down the road. Others believe that as long as coffee is consumed in moderation, there are no harmful effects. Here's an article that explains in more detail the risks that many are worried about when consuming coffee.

The Coffee Controversy

At the end of the article it states that "Individual responses to the chemicals found in coffee are highly varied, due in majority to differences in age, detoxification by liver, use of BCP, HRT, pregnancy status, and neurotransmitter sensitivity. The amount ingested and rate of ingestion may also account for response differences. Despite the controversies of coffee ingestion side effects, 2 cups/day is safe for the vast majority of asymptomatic coffee users" So it's hard to tell exactly how many people the problems mentioned effect....