Hey, it’s not me saying it. It’s Gary Arendash, University of South Florida in Tampa, in the highly respected Nutrition Action Healthletter.
Those who drank three to five cups of coffee a day in middle age had a lower risk of Alzheimer’s or other dementia 21 years later than those who drank less.
“Caffeine is anti-inflammatory, and Alzheimer’s is a disease of inflammation in the brain.”
People who drink regular coffee also have a lower risk of Parkinson’s, and regular or decaf may help prevent diabetes. [Also, I’ve read in certain other articles, seems to help reduce the incidence of certain cancers.]
“Caffeine is the most prevalent psychoactive drug taken in by humans. It’s safe and inexpensive. It’s as effective as anything that pharmaceutical companies have devised.”
“Unless you are pregnant, I would absolutely recommend caffeine.”
“or the vast majority, it’s entirely safe and it’s a no-brainer [interesting choice of adjective] to protect against diseases of aging like diabetes, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s.”
Dark chocolate, nuts, now coffee… all health foods.
Now if they could just stop pointing out the link between wine and breast cancer, nearly all my nutritional vices will have become virtues.
Cultureguru's Weblog 
April 1, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Does that apply to tea too? I really don’t like coffee much. I know it has less caffeine than coffee, but still.
April 1, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Not sure. The article keeps mentioning caffeine, so you’d think tea would be as good as coffee (though maybe you’d have to drink a bit more), but the fact is they studied coffee consumption in particular, not tea.
I know with the diabetes study it was definitely something in coffee in particular that helped — didn’t matter if it was caf or decaf. But for Alzheimer’s and other dementia, the caffeine seems key. So, seems worth trying tea if you don’t like coffee (and aren’t having insomnia issues :-).