Notorious for giving people heartburn, insomnia, heart palpitations, the shakes and migraines - to name but a few - the poor old coffee bean has a lot to answer for. But drinking coffee may not be as bad for you as is suspected and may even provide some health benefits.
Research presented at US Digestive Disease Week in May indicated that drinking more than two cups of coffee a day might protect people who have a higher risk of liver disease. And in March, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a report that found the higher the coffee consumption, the lower the risk of Type 2 diabetes.
This study was conducted in Finland, whose people are said to be the biggest coffee drinkers per capita in the world, according to the research report.
The research showed women who drank three to four cups of coffee a day had a 29 per cent reduced risk of developing diabetes. But those who drank at least 10 cups a day had a 79 per cent reduced risk. The 10-cup a day male drinkers had a 55 per cent lower risk, while three to four cups a day provided a 27 per cent lower risk.
For those who are not convinced, but still crave the coffee taste, an alternative exists - Well-Bean coffee. This bean was brought to Hong Kong by health cafe Kosmo in Central and is an organic soy-based coffee. It was developed in the US by nutritionist Claudia Del Vecchio.
'In 1998, my mother-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer and was told to get more soy in her diet because of its nutritional properties. She also found that having chemotherapy meant regular coffee was too acidic to drink. So she asked me to find her a coffee she could drink. It then occurred to me that perhaps I could combine the soy bean and the coffee bean,' says the 44-year-old, whose Well-Bean Coffee company has just merged with Kosmo.