Coffee and green tea benefits

In the late 1960s, American Airlines public relations specialist Donald Bain ghostwrote a supposed expose on the wild times of three stewardesses titled “Coffee, Tea or Me?” The book’s publisher hired two stewardesses as the “authors” for book tours and television appearances — even though their escapades were pure fiction. That would never fly these days, although you could write a highly respectable health book called “Coffee, Tea and You!”

The evidence keeps mounting on the health benefits of drinking coffee (filtered, with no added flavors, sugars or dairy) — and green tea.

We know coffee reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes, liver disease and breast cancer and helps forestall or slow progression of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and the caffeine and phytonutrients in coffee and green tea can help fight off cancers, dementia and cardiovascular disease.

Plus, a recent meta-analysis in BMJ Open showed that consumption of coffee was associated with a 9% reduction in prostate cancer risk.

Now, a 15-year study in the journal Stroke shows that if folks who have had a stroke drink around 24 ounces of green tea daily, they’ll lower their risk of dying over that period of time by 24% and heart attack survivors who drink one 5-ounce cup of coffee a day reduce their overall risk of death by around 22%. People who have never had a stroke or heart attack and drink one or more cups of coffee a week have about a 14% lower risk of death than noncoffee drinkers. So drink up!

Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Wellness Officer and Chair of Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic. To live your healthiest, tune into “The Dr. Oz Show” or visit www.sharecare. com.