Marina Kushner is a woman on a mission: To spread nonsense about caffeine’s effects, influence state legislatures to try to curb caffeine use, and, in general, to ride into the limelight by intimidating and frightening people so that they avoid caffeine. The Truth About Caffeine, one of her scientismic books, carries forward her campaign.
She summarizes her stand well:
The Truth About Caffeine exposes caffeine’s darker side that scientists know but that the beverage, confectionery and pharmaceutical industries have tried to suppress. Caffeine is a highly addictive drug, does not offer any nutritional value and has not been proven safe. Epidemiological, clinical and laboratory studies link caffeine to heart disease, pancreas cancer, bladder cancer, hypoglycemia and central nervous system disorders.
Every statement made in the quotation above is wrong. Caffeine, though habit forming, is not an addictive drug, and it has been proven safe for almost all healthy adults. And although caffeine has been linked with every one of the conditions she mentions, the connection between caffeine and these conditions is that caffeine offers strong protection against contracting them and against suffering illness and death if they are contracted. Heart pathology is perhaps the single most glaring example. Caffeine lowers death rate from all-cause heart pathologies and significantly extends life-expectancy as a result.
Read this book if you want to find out what the paranoid messengers from the Dark Side are up to in their attempt to interfere with your enjoyment and use of caffeine. Then have a cup of coffee, relax, feel good, and try to conjure up a bit of sympathy for the thousands of people who are giving up the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of caffeine because of irresponsible scare-mongers like Kushner.
