来源：《卫报》
原文刊登日期：2022年5月30日
“I’m surprised that people still think coffee is bad for them,” says Dr Astrid Nehlig, research director of the French medical research institute, and one of the world’s leading researchers into coffee, health and brain function. When she first started researching coffee 30 years ago, she often encountered producers who were nervous that their products might be found to be harmful. “But a lot of progress has been made in the last 10-15 years.”
法国医学研究所的研究主任阿斯特丽德·内利希博士说：“我很惊讶，人们仍然认为咖啡对他们有害。”她是世界上研究咖啡、健康和大脑功能的顶尖学者之一。30年前，当她第一次开始研究咖啡时，她经常遇到一些生产商，它们担心自己的产品可能被发现是有害的。“但在过去10-15年里，已经取得了很多进展。”
So what do we know, now? “Coffee contains more than 1,000 compounds, so what we are looking at is not just about caffeine,” says Nehlig. “It increases alertness but at the same time relaxes us. It focuses and increases attention, but prevents sleep, especially if you drink too much, or too late.” We are not all equal on this front: caffeine targets our brain’s adenosine receptors but half of us are immune to this effect – which explains all those people who drink espresso after dinner and conk out at 11pm. “It’s also about the accumulation of caffeine during the day, which is related to how we metabolise caffeine – in one group of the population, caffeine builds up in the body, but the other group eliminates it very quickly.”
现在我们知道了什么？“咖啡含有超过1000种化合物，所以我们要研究的不仅仅是咖啡因，”内利希说。“它让我们跟清醒，但同时也让我们放松。它能使我们集中注意力，提高注意力，但也会妨碍睡眠，特别是如果你喝得太多或太晚的话。”在这方面，我们每个人都不是等同的：咖啡因以我们大脑的腺苷受体为靶点，但一半的人对此免疫——这就解释了为什么有些人在晚饭后喝浓缩咖啡，但晚上11点就能入睡。“这也与一天中咖啡因的积累有关，这与我们代谢咖啡因的方式有关——在一组人群中，咖啡因在体内积累，但另一组人很快就会清除它。”
Nehlig adds: “Coffee has often been accused of being bad for heart health. But we now have global research showing that coffee is protective against cardiovascular disease, stroke and coronary heart disease, and decreases mortality linked to cardiovascular issues.” Nehlig says there is also clear evidence that coffee protects against type 2 diabetes, regardless of body fat; it’s definitely protective against Parkinson’s disease and almost certainly against cognitive decline in general. Coffee does not increase our risk of cancer. “It’s neutral, or even protective in some cancers, like the liver, colon and some non-hormonally dependent breast cancers.” Quite why this is, isn’t yet known; Nehlig’s hunch is that it’s to do with coffee’s range of antioxidants.
内利希补充道：“咖啡经常被指责对心脏健康有害。但我们现在的全球研究表明，咖啡可以预防心血管疾病、中风和冠心病，并降低与心血管疾病相关的死亡率。”内利希说，也有明确的证据表明，无论体脂如何，咖啡都能预防2型糖尿病；咖啡肯定能预防帕金森氏症，几乎肯定能预防认知能力下降。咖啡不会增加我们患癌症的风险。“对某些癌症，如肝癌、结肠癌和一些非激素依赖性乳腺癌，咖啡是中性的，甚至是保护性的。”为什么会这样，目前还不清楚；内利希的直觉是，这与咖啡中的一系列抗氧化剂有关。
This isn’t a licence to knock back as many flat whites as possible, though, as caffeine can be an issue. “Research shows adults shouldn’t go over 400mg of caffeine a day, which is 4-5 small cups, and no more than 200mg in one sitting.”
不过，这并不是允许你想喝多少就喝多少白咖啡，因为咖啡因可能是一个问题。“研究表明，成年人每天摄入的咖啡因不应超过400毫克，也就是4-5小杯，一次不应超过200毫克。”
“For some people caffeine will either trigger anxiety or worsen symptoms of anxiety,” says Murray Carpenter, author of Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit Hooks, Helps and Hurts Us. “Some who really suffer from anxiety have never experimented with eliminating or minimising caffeine.” Caffeine also worsens insomnia. “In both scenarios, I think it’s important that people experiment with changing their caffeine habits and see what improves,” says Carpenter. It won’t be a silver bullet for everyone. “But if you don’t experiment, you won’t know.”
《咖啡因：我们的日常习惯如何影响、帮助和伤害我们》一书的作者默里·卡朋特说：“对一些人来说，咖啡因要么会引发焦虑，要么会加重焦虑症状。一些真正患有焦虑症的人从未尝试过消除或减少咖啡因的摄入。”咖啡因也会加重失眠。卡朋特说：“在这两种情况下，我认为重要的是人们要尝试改变他们的咖啡因摄入习惯，看看有什么改善。”这并不是对所有人都有效的方法。“但如果你不去尝试，你就不会知道。”