Opinion

Brewing up some good news for us

Tuesday, October 30, 2001

At long last there's finally some good news for coffee drinkers. The United States military - of all organizations - has found some merit to drinking coffee. It seems the caffeine helps increase reaction time and improve performance for servicemen. And folks, if it's good enough for the military, it's certainly good enough for me.

Coffee has been both criticized and praised in recent years as our scientific community spends billions on research. But as every coffee drinker knows, coffee can indeed improve performance by a notch or so. Or as the military study says: "The equivalent of one to six cups of coffee can be used in maintaining speed of reactions and visual and auditory vigilance." That's fancy language but coffee drinkers know what it means.

In fact, the coffee/caffeine study has prompted the military to find ways to put caffeine in nutrition bars and chewing gum. They believe those low doses of caffeine can enhance physical endurance.

Now I don't normally find government studies to my liking. But as a dedicated coffee consumer, I find relief in the fact that my daily dosage is virtually recommended by the United States government. I do believe however that one military officer may have gone a bit overboard with reaction to the study. Lt. Col. Donald Archibald said the merits of coffee intake "are going to be extremely important in this ongoing effort to combat terrorism." That may be pushing the envelope a bit beyond the level of common sense.

Like all things in life, taken in moderation few things are extremely harmful, except the obvious of course. If coffee can improve performance and physical endurance, then let's brew away. The military may even want to consider a new officer title - Brewmaster.

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