Coffee is food
You drink it every day. So why does almost nobody talk about it as part of your diet?
By Franklin · 5 min readMost Americans drink coffee every single day. In the morning, mid-morning, after lunch, sometimes again in the afternoon. We think carefully about our vegetables, our protein and our bread. Then we drink two or three cups of something we never think about at all.
I believe coffee is food. Here is why.
A bean is a seed
The coffee bean is the seed of a fruit, the coffee cherry. It grows on a plant, in soil, with rain and sun, like anything else we eat. A farmer chooses the variety, cares for it, harvests it and processes it. By the time it reaches you, it has been through more hands than most of the food on your plate.
Roasting is cooking
A raw coffee seed tastes grassy and tastes nothing like coffee. Everything you love about the cup is created by heat, the same way bread gets its crust. Roasting is cooking, and like any cooking, it can be done with care or done badly.
What’s actually in your cup
A cup of brewed coffee is almost entirely water, which is one reason the old idea that coffee dehydrates you does not hold up for regular, moderate drinkers. The rest is a mix of natural compounds, including caffeine and plant polyphenols such as chlorogenic acids. Several studies have found that coffee is one of the biggest sources of these antioxidants in the typical Western diet.
Large population studies have also linked moderate coffee drinking with a lower risk of several diseases. Linked is the honest word: those studies show a connection, not proof of cause. But they point in a clear direction. A good cup of coffee is not a guilty pleasure. It can be part of a healthy day.
Then why turn it into dessert?
Much of the coffee sold today is closer to a milkshake: syrups, sugar, whipped cream. The sugar adds calories the coffee never had, and the flavors cover everything the farm and the roast created. You end up drinking the topping, not the food.
My suggestion is simple. Treat coffee the way you treat the rest of your food. Ask where it comes from. Ask how it was cooked. And try it black first, at least once. If it tastes great black, it was grown right and roasted right.