The Healing Powers of Coffee

Book excerpt: Boost your immune system with antioxidants, lower your risk for the flu, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and more—with ordinary everyday ingredients you can find at home—and make healthy green choices in today’s fast-changing world! “This book is a wake-up call to show coffee, an emerging ancient remedy, is now the ‘newest’ health food”—includes recipes and cures! (Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D.) Java facts you didn’t know . . . According to legend, an Ethiopian goat herder was the first to discover the energizing benefits of the coffee bean plant centuries ago. Drinking freshly ground coffee from whole beans can help lower the risk of heart disease, cancer (including breast, prostate and skin), cirrhosis, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease! Coffee is the number #1 source of antioxidants in the U.S. diet. Coffee can relieve a host of ailments, including asthma, dental woes, gallstones, headaches, short term memory loss, muscle pain, as well as help you slim down and shape up! Percolating with information about the world’s favorite superfood, as well as interviews with medical doctors, researchers, and coffee roasters, this intriguing book (with a jolt of past and present coffee culture) describes coffee types and blends, and flavored varieties (both regular and decaf), like chocolate, fruits, nuts, and spices. Discover why this potent elixir has gone from vice to virtue and how to incorporate coffee in Mediterranean-style, healthful recipes like Cappuccino Biscotti, Thai Coffee Spice Chicken Sates, Coffee Cheesecake and Maple Espresso Pudding (plus DIY espresso drinks). Also included are more than 50 home cures that fight seasonal affective disorder to fatigue, plus beauty and anti-aging treatments, and eco-friendly household uses—all made with coffee’s magical beans! “A cup or two of Joe every day is a good way to boost mood, energy and overall health.” —Julian Whitaker, M.D., founder of the Whitaker Wellness Institute