Your cup of Joe is better for you than you might think! Scientists have been studying the affects of coffee on people for decades--Like in the 1960s, there was the Honolulu Heart Program. Doctors were wondering if coffee increased the risk of heart attacks so they studied 8,000 coffee drinkers. 40 years later, there is no proven link between coffee and heart attacks. But, those who drank between 3 and 6 cups a day, were 5 times less likely to develop Parkinson's disease. Neurologists say caffeine appears to protect brain cells from the damage that leads to Parkinson's. In a more recent study, from 2003, Harvard researchers found that people who drink 4 or 5 cups daily cut their risk of Type 2 Diabetes by 30%. And last fall, scientists at Germany's University of Munster identified a compound in coffee that appears to protect against colon cancer.
And if you're worried that drinking all that java might give you the jitters   well, it will if you're not used to it. But, the caffeine in a cup of coffee can increase alertness and improve performance on tests of mental function. So how do you know how much caffeine you're getting? If you go to Starbucks, you'll never know. On average, one Starbucks grande coffee has as much caffeine as 16 sodas. But, the amount of caffeine in that grande varies from day to day   by as much as 50%. The University of Florida analyzed the breakfast blend every day for a week. Some days, the caffeine content was 564 milligrams, other days it was half that. What does it depend upon? The ratio of water to coffee and the brewing time. Want consistent caffeine levels? Brew your own   and you'll also save over a thousand dollars a year.