© 2001 British Nutrition Foundation Nutrition Bulletin, 26, 313–315

Correspondence: Roger Cook, Director, CoSIC, 12 Market Street,

Chipping Norton, Oxon OX7 5NQ, UK.

Tel.: + 44 1608 645566; fax: + 44 1608 645300;

e-mail: cosic@btinternet.com

1For the British Coffee Association Information Service, contact:

The British Coffee Association, PO Box 5, Chipping Norton D O,

Oxon OX7 5UD, UK. Tel.: + 01608 644995; fax: + 1608 644996;

e-mail: bcainformation@btopenworld.com; website:

www.britishcoffeeassociation.org

NEWS AND VIEWS: INDUSTRY

CoSIC – the Coffee ScienceInformation Centre: who we areand what we provide

Roger CookCoSIC, Chipping Norton, Oxon

CoSIC, the pan-European Coffee Science Information

Centre, was established in the UK in 1990 by The Insti-

tute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC), which

is based in Switzerland.

During the last decade, there has been an increase in

consumer awareness of diet-related health issues and

as a result of this trend, many popular foods and drinks,

including coffee, have come under scrutiny. CoSIC was

set up to work with independent scientists to develop

factual overviews of the large, and often conflicting,

volume of data concerning coffee and its effects on

health.

Through the collection of experimental data and

contact with researchers, CoSIC assesses all the past and

ongoing medical research on coffee and caffeine being

undertaken around the world. It maintains and regu-

larly updates a scientific database that now comprises

thousands of published research studies.

The aim of CoSIC is to provide accurate, balanced

and consistent information to all the audiences across

Europe who have an interest in coffee, caffeine and

health. The primary objective is to bring balance to the

coffee and health debate. CoSIC provides information

only on those conditions for which there are published

scientific data available. It operates through a network

of offices, known as National Operators, in 19 coun-

tries across Europe. National Operators are responsible

for providing information on coffee and health within

their own country. This information is based on ma-

terials provided by CoSIC and any such information is

checked for scientific accuracy before being distributed.

The National Operator in the UK is the British Coffee

Association Information Service.1

Coffee: part of a healthy balanced diet

The history of coffee

The coffee tree probably originated in the province of

Kaffa, in the area known today as Ethiopia. There is no

real evidence to show exactly when, or how, it was first

discovered that a rich stimulating brew could be made

from the bean (or seed) within the fruit of the coffee

bush, but it is thought that before coffee was ever appre-

ciated as a beverage, native people may have chewed the

ripe cherries and beans as food. There is evidence to

suggest that coffee trees were cultivated in monastery

gardens 1000 years ago, and commercial cultivation

followed, although the first reports of this, from the

Yemen, were not recorded until the fifteenth century.

The first coffee houses were opened in Mecca, where

coffee drinking was initially encouraged, and quickly

spread throughout the Arab world. The coffee houses,

which developed into luxuriously decorated places

where music, dancing, chess and gossip could be

enjoyed and business conducted, were subsequently

suppressed when they became centres of political activ-

ity, although they were soon re-established.

Trade in coffee, a much-prized commodity, was jeal-

ously guarded by the Arabs who would not allow for-

eigners to visit their coffee plantations, nor allow fertile

313

coffee beans to be taken out of the country. However,

seed-beans or plant cuttings were eventually taken out

of Arabia and cultivated in the Dutch colonies of India

and Java. The Dutch became the main suppliers of

coffee to Europe, with Amsterdam the trading centre.

Venetian traders first brought coffee to Europe in

1615, and 30 years later a coffee house or ‘café’ was

opened in Venice. The growth of popular coffee houses,

which became favourite meeting places for both social

and business purposes, spread from the mid-17th

century to other European countries, including Austria,

France, Holland, Germany and England. Lloyd’s of

London, the largest insurance providers in the world,

began life as a coffee house in 1688. From Europe coffee

was taken to Virginia, USA, and the last three hundred

years have seen coffee make its way around the world,

establishing itself in the economies and lifestyle of the

main trading nations.

Coffee is now one of the most valuable primary com-

modities in the world, often second in value only to oil

as a source of foreign exchange to developing countries.

Millions of people around the world earn their living

from it.

At certain times in history coffee has been hailed as

a medical cure-all, while at other times condemned as

the devil’s brew; in the latter case usually for political

or religious reasons, when coffee houses were at their

height of popularity as meeting places. However, in the

last half-century, scientific research has established the

facts about coffee, caffeine (responsible for coffee’s mild

stimulant effect) and health; in moderation, coffee con-

sumption is not a health risk, and as well as being a

most pleasurable experience, drinking coffee may in fact

confer some health benefits.

Coffee and health

Coffee’s enormous popularity and worldwide use has

made it the subject of considerable health research over

the past decades. Thousands of scientific papers have

been written about the relationship between coffee

drinking and health covering a wide range of subjects,

some of which are summarised below.

Debunking the myths

Pregnancy outcomes

There is no sound scientific evidence that moderate con-

sumption of coffee has any effect on the outcomes of

pregnancy or on the wellbeing of the child. The Food

Standards Agency, here in the UK, issued guidelines

314 Roger Cook

© 2001 British Nutrition Foundation Nutrition Bulletin, 26, 313–315

advising pregnant women to keep their caffeine intake

to around 300 mg/day, equivalent to four cups or three

mugs of coffee. This advice is in line with that given by

the Royal College of Midwives and the Centre for Preg-

nancy Nutrition.

Osteoporosis

Bone health is not affected by coffee drinking. Adverse

effects in some published studies have been attributed

to aspects of lifestyle that are often shared by coffee

drinkers, such as smoking and inactivity. The National

Osteoporosis Society State that ‘we have yet to see

any conclusive evidence that moderate coffee consump-

tion is a significant risk factor in the development of

osteoporosis.’

Cancer

There is no evidence that coffee drinking is a risk for

the development of cancer. For several types of cancer,

there is a disagreement between studies, but again, other

aspects of lifestyle may be implicated. The World

Cancer Research fund published an extensive review

of diet and cancer in 1997. With regard to coffee it

stated,

‘Most evidence suggests that regular consumption

of coffee and/or tea has no significant relationship

with the risk of cancer at any site’.

Cardiovascular disease

The debate about any effect of coffee drinking on the

development of coronary heart disease (CHD), heart

attacks or ventricular arrhythmias has yielded an excep-

tional number of research papers over the last few

decades. A consensus of published literature provides

little evidence for a strong association between coffee

drinking and CHD and none at all that coffee or caf-

feine are causal factors. The British Heart Foundation

state that,

‘There is little evidence to support the notion that

coffee contributes to coronary heart disease’.

Health benefits

Coffee can help you recover from a cold

The after-effects of a cold can affect your mood, reac-

tion time and hand–eye co-ordination, but a cup of

coffee can produce a ‘feel-good’ factor and help to lift

some of the sluggish symptoms (Smith, 1998).

CoSIC – the Coffee Science Information Centre 315

© 2001 British Nutrition Foundation Nutrition Bulletin, 26, 313–315

Coffee can cut road accidents

A coffee break might make the difference between life

and death for many drivers. A large proportion of road

accidents is caused by drivers falling asleep at the wheel

(Regner, 2000).

Coffee’s antioxidants may help fight cancer and CHD

A freshly brewed cup of coffee may do more than just

wake you up in the morning – it might be helping your

body fight cancer and heart disease. Antioxidants, in

coffee, may have beneficial effects and protect against

the development of diseases (Richelle, 2001).

Coffee can protect against Parkinson’s disease

Coffee and caffeine intake is associated with a lower

incidence of Parkinson’s disease. This effect appears to

be independent of smoking (Webster-Ross, 2000).

These are just a few of the published scientific studies

that have shown coffee to be beneficial. For more infor-

mation on coffee, caffeine and health visit the CoSIC

website http://www.cosic.org. Copies of the studies

reported above are also available from CoSIC.

References

Reyner LA & Horne J (2000) Early morning driver sleepiness:

Effectiveness of 200 mg Caffeine. Psychophysiology 73: 251.

Richelle M et al. (2001) Comparison of antioxidant activity in com-

monly consumed beverages (coffee, cocoa and tea) prepared per

cup serving. Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry 49:

3438–42.

Smith AP et al. (1998) Caffeine and the common cold. Journal ofPsychopharmacology 11(4): 319–24.

Webster-Ross G et al. (2000) Association of coffee and caffeine

intake with the risk of Parkinson’s Disease. Journal of the Ameri-can Medical Association 283(20): 2674–9.