Patil Harshal, Lavie Carl J, O'Keefe James H
Mid-America Heart Institute, Saint Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, USA.
Mo Med. 2011 Nov-Dec;108(6):431-8.
Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug worldwide. Indeed the majority of adults consume caffeine on a daily basis, most commonly in the forms of coffee and tea. Coffee, in particular, is the favored caffeine source in the United States, where more than 150 million people drink coffee on a daily basis. Coffee, one of the richest sources of antioxidants in the average American's diet, contains caffeine and other antioxidants that have the potential to confer both beneficial and adverse health effects. A growing body of research shows that coffee drinkers, compared to nondrinkers, may be less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, stroke, depression, death from any cause, and neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Coffee appears to have a neutral effect on cardiovascular health. Although more research is clearly needed, coffee, when consumed without added cream or sugar, is a calorie-free beverage that may confer health benefits, especially when used in individuals who do not have adverse subjective effects due to its stimulating effects, and when coffee is substituted for less healthy, unnatural, and/or high-calorie beverages, such as colas and other sugary and artificially sweetened sodas and soft drinks.
咖啡因是全球消费最为广泛的精神活性药物。事实上，大多数成年人每天都摄入咖啡因，最常见的形式是咖啡和茶。尤其是咖啡，在美国它是最受欢迎的咖啡因来源，每天有超过1.5亿人喝咖啡。咖啡是普通美国人饮食中最丰富的抗氧化剂来源之一，含有咖啡因和其他抗氧化剂，这些物质可能对健康产生有益和有害的影响。越来越多的研究表明，与不喝咖啡的人相比，喝咖啡的人患2型糖尿病、中风、抑郁症、任何原因导致的死亡以及神经退行性疾病（包括帕金森病和阿尔茨海默病）的可能性可能更低。咖啡对心血管健康似乎具有中性影响。虽然显然还需要更多的研究，但在不添加奶油或糖的情况下饮用，咖啡是一种无热量饮料，可能带来健康益处，特别是当饮用者不会因其刺激作用而产生不良主观影响时，以及当用咖啡替代不太健康、不天然和/或高热量的饮料（如可乐和其他含糖及人工甜味汽水和软饮料）时。
