Science! Those Who Take Their Coffee Black May Be More Likely to Exhibit Psychopathic Tendencies

I’m just mentioning this because it involves one of my favorite things in life, coffee.

Not that this study should be taken as indisputable fact, but a recent study claims to have found that people who take their coffee black are more inclined to exhibit psychopathic tendencies:

“Looking at the taste preferences of 500 people, it was found that those who enjoyed bitter flavors over sweet flavors were more likely to exhibit signs of “Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, and everyday sadism.” The study, which was published in the journal Appetite, was conducted at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, by psychologists Christina Sagioglou and Tobias Greitemeyer.”

While 500 people may seem like a lot, that’s actually a pretty small sample size. There are a couple other elements to this study that are missing, so I’m really not taking this study seriously. Still, it’s interesting to consider.

Feel free to check it out while I sit here and sip my coffee (with creamer in it), and have a great day everyone!

Science! I’m Going to Live Forever….

Apparently, according to some of the studies IFLScience has been posting about.

Anyone who knows me IRL is well aware I drink a lot of coffee, and eat a lot of peanuts/peanut butter. In addition to the recent study which showed drinking coffee reduces the breakage in DNA strands, it also seems to benefit your heart, a new study now shows it can also help to reduce the risk of calcium build up in your heart’s arteries, and therefore less of a chance for them to clog and create heart problems down the line.

The second study took place over several years and monitored over 200,000 people, running the whole gamut of demographic groups. Unfortunately over the study about 14,000 people died, however: ” they found that those who consumed peanuts had drastically reduced total mortality, by 17-21 percent. When they examined the cause of death, they realized that eating peanuts was linked to a decrease of a staggering 23-38 percent in death caused by cardiovascular disease.”

While the article definitely clarifies that there is no clear cause and effect, they are pointing out an interesting correlation.

They are pretty interesting articles: check them out and let me know what you think!

New Coffee Study and Its Positive Effects on Aging

According to this study, coffee in moderate amounts may reduce both motor and cognitive deficits in aging, as well as possibly reduce the risk of developing certain chronic illnesses.

So with the amount of coffee I drink, I’m going to remain relatively healthy and sharp as a hammer for years to come…

…Wait a minute…

Anyway, Check it out! 

My Coffee Consumption

I recently decided that I was going to stop drinking coffee and the creamer that adds calories since they can easily be cut out. And also, isn’t green tea supposed to help you burn calories and all? My coffee consumption (or lack, thereof) however has raised questions from some concerned friends.

“Not drink coffee? Sweet nectar of life and the only thing that keeps me from ripping the faces off loved ones and co-workers? How can you not drink the drink of the gods?”

Let’s break down exactly what my problem is.

I can not drink coffee black for extended periods of time. When working at Starbucks they encouraged us to have ‘coffee tastings’ of black coffee to better describe what we were selling to customers, and I was able to go through those small cups like a champ, however give me more than a mouthwash cup of the stuff and I just can’t do it.

So I use creamer. Light cream, heavy cream, non-dairy creamer, doesn’t matter. I even have my own splenda to take to work in case they run out. The creamer is the problem.

So, let’s run some numbers (I never thought in a million years I would say that) concerning what I am really drinking.

Our delightful little friend at the office, Mr. Office Snax Non-Dairy Coffee Creamer says that every 2 teaspoons is 10 calories in his little canister. That would be fine if I drank one cup of coffee a day, and whipped out my measuring spoons every time I drank said cup. But alas, that is not the case.

I drink realistically about 2 cups of coffee a day at work, and in that coffee, I put about 2-3 Tablespoons of creamer in each cup. And since there are 3 teaspoons to every Tablespoon, I am drinking at least 30 calories per cup, so at least 60 calories a day, 5 days a week, which is…(hold on, I ran out of fingers to count on, so I’m using a calculator) 300 calories a week. Per month, that’s 1200 calories. And that’s just non-dairy creamer. That’s not counting the cup of coffee I drink at home in the morning in which  I use splenda and light cream. Light cream is about 20 calories, so add 100 calories to the weekly total.

And these are all conservative estimates. There are days I put extra light cream or creamer into my coffee, days where I get an extra cup, and there have been occasions I have wandered down to the cafe on the first floor of my building and gotten a sugar free vanilla latte. I’m not going to go through all the math, but it’s a lot of calories.

Now green tea comes into the  picture. Last time I checked, tea has zero calories. When at work I tend to put in a little lemon juice. That, according to the bottle, has zero calories as well.

I would also like to note for the record I HATE counting calories. I would rather go through dental surgery than have to count calories for the rest of my life. So, I do things that are simple and in some cases absolute to make sure I stay within my goals, without having to pull out a TI-84 calculator to see if I’m ok for lunch. This just happens to be one of those absolutes I have to take in order to get to my goal weight for tournaments. Coffee is usually one of the last things I cut out of my diet, so this year I am changing it up and making it one of the first.

There are protein drinks out there however that have a coffee flavor in them, which I am more than willing to try, but my daily three-4 cups of coffee will have to be on hold for a while.