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Is it possible that back in the 1830s the limited knowledge on health factors is simply out of date today with all we do know about life’s greater risks? Quote:Is coffee good or bad for me?
Answers from Donald Hensrud, M.D.
Coffee has a long history of being blamed for many ills — from stunting your growth to claims that it causes heart disease and cancer. But recent research indicates that coffee may not be so bad after all. So which is it — good or bad? The best answer may be that for most people the health benefits outweigh the risks.
Recent studies have generally found no connection between coffee and an increased risk of cancer or heart disease. In fact, most studies find an association between coffee consumption and decreased overall mortality and possibly cardiovascular mortality, although this may not be true in younger people who drink large amounts of coffee.
Why the apparent reversal in the thinking about coffee? Earlier studies didn’t always take into account that known high-risk behaviors, such as smoking and physical inactivity, tended to be more common among heavy coffee drinkers at that time.
Studies have shown that coffee may have health benefits, including protecting against Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes and liver disease, including liver cancer. It also appears to improve cognitive function and decrease the risk of depression.
However, the research appears to bear out some risks. High consumption of unfiltered coffee (boiled or espresso) has been associated with mild elevations in cholesterol levels. And some studies found that two or more cups of coffee a day can increase the risk of heart disease in people with a specific — and fairly common — genetic mutation that slows the breakdown of caffeine in the body. So, how quickly you metabolize coffee may affect your health risk.
Although coffee may have fewer risks compared with benefits, keep in mind that other beverages, such as milk and some fruit juices, contain nutrients that coffee does not. Also, adding cream and sugar to your coffee adds more fat and calories. Some coffee drinks contain more than 500 calories.
Source:
Coffee and Health – Mayo ClinicIt wouldn’t surprise me if the church started de-emphasizing the coffee/tea thing, take it off the temple recommend list of questions, replace with true Word of Wisdom teachings such as exercise and moderation, and eventually it just fade in the background and go away as taboo in our tribe. The church doesn’t even have to say past prophets were wrong…simply…the Word of Wisdom is teaching us to be healthy and there are far greater things than coffee to worry about in today’s world.
It just seems to have become a test of obedience. There really isn’t much else to it that I can see.
How long can we keep saying “well…doctors just don’t know as much as prophets do…you’ll see…doctors will change their tune again and again…prophets stay consistent.”
Some things that were good to practice in the past just don’t apply to today’s world. Perhaps the benefits of coffee outweigh the risks, and the risks of other parts of the Word of Wisdom outweigh hot drinks.
Think it will ever change?
No. The church needs a tight rein. WoW is the perfect thing. Tithing is second.
The WoW doesn’t hold up in many ways but that hasn’t stopped the church from emphasizing it.
I personally don’t like the taste of coffee so I am fine.
I do hate the way we make coffee the enemy but completely forget how many members drank Postum, then low and behold it was found to be unhealthy and taken off of store shelves. No one in the LDS world batted an eye.
I don’t think so. I could be wrong.
It’s an obedience test and there isn’t much incentive right now for the leadership to change it. With no incentive, no change. Plus, most members I know still think of it is an important marker of being an upstanding member of the Church. It’s become a cultural marker for us as a people. They’re hardpressing this issue, even in Asia, where drinking tea is very, very common. It’s hard to get someone to give up tea when it’s a staple in the culture. One of the few ways I could see aggravation for change to occur is if China opened up for our missionaries and the missionaries were having significant setbacks because of the tea issue. Even then, maybe they’d just say that “green tea” is okay and keep black tea on the “do not drink” list
We’ll see.
Heber13 wrote:It wouldn’t surprise me if the church started de-emphasizing the coffee/tea thing, take it off the temple recommend list of questions, replace with true Word of Wisdom teachings such as exercise and moderation, and eventually it just fade in the background and go away as taboo in our tribe. The church doesn’t even have to say past prophets were wrong…simply…the Word of Wisdom is teaching us to be healthy and there are far greater things than coffee to worry about in today’s world.
It just seems to have become a test of obedience. There really isn’t much else to it that I can see.
Think it will ever change?
I agree with your premise, but I it seems so ingrained for quite a long time now that I have a hard time seeing it changed. I do think there is concern some will still look at it as “the prophet (and especially Joseph) made a mistake.” but then again, they have said this in the essay on race that BY got it wrong.And as you have pointed out, it is a test of obedience and it feels a bit to me that the church currently is more worried about that than many other doctrines/teachings.
You could make the same argument about beer/wine, but that would be even more minor as they could move back to the definition of “hard drinks” being forbidden (distilled spirits with elevated levels of alcohol). There are many studies showing that a small glass of wine most evenings can be healthy.
Here’s to hoping. I don’t drink coffee, I tried it well before I was baptized, hated the taste but if the studies about reducing the risk of colon cancer and reducing the risk of cognitive illnesses related to aging are to be believed I might find a way to develop a taste for the stuff. I’d have to weigh the potential health benefits against whether or not I wanted to retain my temple recommend, even though I view total abstinence as way over the top for many of the thou shalt nots of the WoW. For now no coffee for me – WoW or otherwise. The WoW says hot drinks “which is interpreted to mean…” the interpretation could change at any time. Coffee doesn’t get a specific mention in the actual scriptures so there is a window for change.
In the against column:
1) Most people I know in church still view coffee as an addiction forming substance. That reason alone is enough for them to consider coffee bad. That’s a hurdle.
2) This one is silly but for whatever reason I believe it would delay change… specific mentions of coffee as being against the WoW is found all over our printed materials. They’d have to change everything. Sure, it’s probably not a real reason for not changing but all it takes is one guy going, “I don’t want to have to change all that.” Stupid, I know.
3) The obedience test has already been mentioned.
Biggest new thing on Parkinson’s Disease is related to smoking. Smokers have a lower incidence of Parkinson’s. So do Indians (Dot — not feather). Researchers looked for a correlation. Indians cook with a lot of peppers. Peppers are from the same family as tobacco. Currently, they are doing research on diets with higher amounts of various peppers and Parkinson’s. Intial results look promising. Maybe coffee drinkers smoke more .. So less Parkinson’s?
This is an interesting website that I haven’t seen before: http://www.hotpepper.ca/lds/wordofwisdom/2006/02/yerba-mate/ Mate is a hot drink used primarily in Argentina. There was controversy about church members using it & HQ said it was ok.
I tried to find a statement from lds.org & can’t find one.
This seems like a similar discussion we had about tithing.
In church history, when the pioneers left Nauvoo every wagon had a list of supplies they were suppose to carry.
The list included 5 pounds of coffee & 3 pounds of tea.
Brigham Young is quoted in the Journal Discourses in 1865:
Quote:The Lord gave me strength to lay aside tobacco, and it is very rarely indeed that I taste tea or coffee; yet I have no objection to aged persons, when they are fatigued and feel infirm, taking a little stimulus that will do them good. It is wrong to use narcotics, for the nervous system is destroyed or injured thereby; but we should maintain a healthy action of all the powers of the body, which should be devoted to the service of our Father and God in building up His kingdom on the earth.
I believe it falls in the same category, addressed by Joseph Smith when he said:
“I teach them correct principles & they govern themselves.”
I find it funny what BY said (and then something different). I heard it described as he emphasized the part of the word of wisdom that he was working on at the time. So if he was trying to give up chewing tobacco then he preached that was important. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Heber13 wrote:Is it possible that back in the 1830s the limited knowledge on health factors is simply out of date today with all we do know about life’s greater risks?
…
Think it will ever change?
My opinions – Definitely Yes and Eventually Yes. There are too many inconsistencies in the WoW as we practice it. Mountain Dew all day long – yes. Iced Coffee no. Chocolate cake and exercise at our discretion. While I don’t think we should add exercise to the temple recommend questions, but I do think a general question about whether we care for personal temple (aka body) would be good.
As food technology advances it’s possible that new positive and negative substances will increasingly fall outside the paradigm of hot and strong drinks. It’s conceivable that in 100 years we’ll pop pills for sustanance and pills for highs and will live off of pills.
The WoW will have to evolve or it will become irrelevant. I think it’s started to evolve already. I can’t remember the last talk I heard about the evils of coffee.
Roadrunner wrote:I can’t remember the last talk I heard about the evils of coffee.
It might have been when they warned of the evils of face cards and billiard tables (which since have just gone away). The evil wasn’t the billiard table…it was that when people used to get together to play pool in town, they’d drink and smoke and ignore their family responsibilities. It was the thing that surrounded the billiard table…which, when those went away, became irrelevant.
Roadrunner wrote Quote:I can’t remember the last talk I heard about the evils of coffee.
Talks – not so much, but class comments a lot. It creeps up with two earring comments. Somehow not drinking coffee (never mind the Mtn. Dew) is following the prophet.
This reminds me of a son I have going to BYU Provo. They found about some “drinking game”, so they adapted it using Mt. Dew. He and his room mates got all caffeinated. His mom was worried and I had to remind her how many of her non-member friends were worrying about their college kids getting drunk and driving or getting drunk and getting slipped a date-rape pill. She seemed to lighten up on him after I mentioned that. Not that it mattered. This son stands on his own two feet and and is respectful, but does not feel like he has to please his parents in every thing he does. Good for him – it will serve him well in life. “In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation” That sounds like people taking advantage of people’s addictions more than being just about health.
Minyan Man: Yerba Mate is absolutely a heavily caffienated tea. Most of the missionaries in Southern Brazil and Northern Argentina were drinking it when I was down there as a teenager. The active members of my ward/stake didn’t drink it. They considered it against the WOW. It almost looked like the church gave it a pass in order to convert more people.
I’ve wondered if missionaries drink tea in Japon and China .. As it is such a social standard. Anyone know?
amateurparent wrote:I’ve wondered if missionaries drink tea in Japon and China .. As it is such a social standard. Anyone know?
Earlier in the thread I also wondered about similar things. Mainland China’s not open to missionaries. Preaching religion there is against the law. However, I’ve heard that the policies about what types of tea are forbidden are strictly outlined for missionaries in Japan and Taiwan. From my interactions with returned missionaries from Asia, they have more knowledge about what types of teas are “forbidden” than even I do because of the strictness. So, from the people I’ve talked to, no, they don’t drink tea.
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