King Gustav’s coffee experiment

Interesting featured article on Wikipedia’s front page today:

Gustav III of Sweden’s coffee experiment was a twin study ordered by the king to study the health effects of coffee. Although the authenticity of the event has been questioned,[1] the experiment, which was conducted in the second half of the 18th century, failed to prove that coffee was a dangerous beverage…

The king ordered the experiment to be conducted using two identical twins. Both of the twins had been tried for the crimes they had committed and condemned to death. Their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment on the condition that one of the twins drank 3 pots[1] of coffee, and the other drank the same amount of tea, every day for the rest of their lives

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_III_of_Sweden%27s_coffee_experiment

interesting… this happened before JS ever was born… and is yet another demonstration that the apologetics around the the WoW are fruitless. we all know this, but for the record:

1. the word of wisdom was never meant to be commandment, but rather health advice.

2. the health advice was ‘hot drinks’, arguably about the bad effects of scalding hot liquids., not about the substances of coffee or tea.

3. coffee and tea were interpreted as the target because these were imports to utah, requiring what BY felt was frivolous expenditure of specie (real currency, money) detracting from money donations that were required to further the PEF (see Leonard Arrington). So the original reasons for upgrading the WoW to a commandment were about money.

4. the absolute strictures were further enhanced during prohibition, as a test of faith via obedience.

thus, the existential value of abstaining from coffee, tea and moderate consumption of mild drinks is completely about demonstrating obedience, especially if such obedience makes no logical sense. it has become an outward symbol of a covenant.

thus the ideas that coffee, tea, moderate drinking of beer and wine are bad for you are not true, not doctrine, and not eternal principles. it’s only current church policy to restrict them.

Wayfarer, what “scalding liquids” were they consuming when the WoW was revealed?

Why, coffee and tea, of course. Then later, postum….

MH, in case wayfarer doesn’t check in for a while, I think it meant that it wasn’t the contents that were highlighted but just the temperature at which they were drunk.

Iow, it’s only long afterward that caffeine entered into the justifications; originally “hot drinks” were designated as coffee and tea simply because those were pretty much the only drinks that were drunk hot by the general membership at the time. Based on the wording, iced tea would not be against the WofW, but hot chocolate (drank while it still was piping hot) would be.

MH, in case wayfarer doesn’t check in for a while, I think it meant that it wasn’t the contents that were highlighted but just the temperature at which they were drunk.

Correct, Ray and Brian clarified my answer.

I am not always able to get online these days, as I am wayfaring for the next month or so…currently in a pub in London called “the grazing goat” enjoying a very mild drink made of barley and other grains… 😈

there are no proven adverse effects from moderate consumption of coffee, tea, wine or beer.

We get overly fascinated with our modern system of publishing experiments in science journals and all that. When it comes to those beverages in particular, we’re all witness to the largest experimental samples ever conducted with human beings. Billions and billions of people have consumed these over long periods of their life, for thousands of years.

We pretty much figured out what they do and don’t do by now… Everything else is some excuse to publish an article or win some grant money 🙂

For me, it makes more sense if ice cream were on the list. (maybe it is…)

Mike from Milton.

Thanks Wayfarer. I haven’t done an in depth study of the history of the WoW; I guess I have always figured it referred to coffee and tea. I do have a CoC friend (FireTag at W&T), and he said they view the WoW more like you said. Many do drink coffee and tea, but simply wait until it has cooled. It seems like a strange justification to LDS members, but perhaps you are on to something there.

As for caffeine, my wife was saddened to learn that drinking coffee can reduce your risk of Type 2 diabetes. See http://health.msn.com/healthy-living/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=100283874&imageindex=6