Clarity at the Dawn

I love coffee.

Instead of an engagement ring my husband gave me an espresso machine. Honestly.

I look forward to seeing its gleaming face every morning.

And I am a relentless coffee apologist. If you feel in need of a tirade just start saying coffee is a vice. I'll be all over you like the crema on my triple shot.

I'll quote articles like this:

Want a drug that could lower your risk of diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and colon cancer? That could lift your mood and treat headaches? That could lower your risk of cavities?

If it sounds too good to be true, think again.

Coffee, the much maligned but undoubtedly beloved beverage, just made headlines for possibly cutting the risk of the latest disease epidemic, type 2 diabetes. And the real news seems to be that the more you drink, the better.

So I had a little thrill the other day when listening to Steven Johnson talk about his new book The Invention of Air on Science Friday. Because, he said, now brace yourselves, "It is not an accident that the Age of Enlightenment coincides with the arrival of coffee and tea as the daily beverages of choice...everyone was basically a lot more alert."

"If you go back a century or two before," he says, "most of the day people drank alcohol. Because it was really the only safe beverage you could drink because the water wasn't safe... [Y]ou had people waking up and drinking wine or beer all day. So you had an entire population that was pretty much drunk from 9am on."

And then came the coffeehouses. So not only is it good for your health, coffee is also responsible for the Enlightenment.

I'll drink to that.