2015, Pages 11–17
Chapter 2 – Highlights in the History of Coffee Science Related to Health
Abstract
Is
coffee food, poison, or medicine? Since the first allusions to the
medicinal and nutritional properties of coffee about 1000 years ago,
coffee's relation to health has been debated. In five centuries of
Western coffee science, the brew has traditionally been present in the Materia Medica.
It has been recommended almost as a panacea for a number of health
conditions—from spiritual well-being to “fevers” and plagues, from the
balance of the humorous temperaments to chronic degenerative diseases
typical of the modern way of life. Outstanding scientists have explored
its potential benefits to health. Following a long search for its
nutritional role in vitality and “nutritive combustions,” along with its
content of “animalized” substances, coffee has ultimately been
acknowledged as a functional and protective food. After waves of
approval and restraint, coffee's identity as related to health and
disease has been historically resignified by science and medicine.
Keywords
- Caffeine;
- Chlorogenic acid;
- Coffee bioactivity;
- Coffee science;
- History of medicine;
- History of nutrition;
- History of science
