In the past, coffee was associated with increased health risks. But research from the last decade finds that drinking coffee may actually benefit your health.

Caffeine is the most popular psychoactive drug in the world. Humans have been drinking coffee, a natural source of caffeine, for centuries, but there have been mixed messages around its effect on human health for decades.

“Traditionally, coffee has been seen as a bad thing,” says Marc Gunter, head of the section of nutrition and metabolism at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). “Research from the 1980s and 90s concluded that people who drank coffee had a higher risk of cardiovascular disease – but it’s evolved since then.”

With more, larger-scale population studies emerging over the last decade, Gunter says, scientists now have data from hundreds of thousands of coffee-drinkers. But what does the research tell us – and is coffee consumption providing health benefits, or risks?


Coffee has been associated with an increased risk of cancer because it contains acrylamide, a carcinogenic substance found in foods including toast, cakes and chips. However, the IARC concluded in 2016 that coffee is not carcinogenic, unless it’s drunk very hot – above 65C (149F).

Not only that, but more research has found that coffee may actually have a protective effect. Some studies have shown an association between coffee drinking and lower severity, and recurrence, of colon cancer in patients, for example.

In 2017, Gunter published the results of a study that looked at the coffee-drinking habits of half a million people across Europe over a period of 16 years. Those who drank more coffee had a lower risk of dying from heart disease, stroke and cancer. These findings are consistent with research from other parts of the world, including the US.

Gunter says there’s enough consensus across observational studies to confirm that people who drink up to four cups of coffee a day have fewer diseases compared to those who don’t drink any.

The potential benefit of coffee could go further. Coffee-drinkers in Gunter’s study were more likely to smoke and had unhealthier diets than non-coffee drinkers. This would suggest that if coffee does lower the risk of heart disease and cancer, it might be more powerful than we think – it’s overriding the effects of unhealthy behaviours.


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PETALING JAYA: A political analyst expects former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to face an uphill task in his effort to bring political parties together in a unity government.

Azmi Hassan, a former lecturer with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, said a unity government, by definition, would need to be composed of all parties that have representation in Parliament.

“There are still sentiments in Umno that Tun can’t be trusted and this feeling also runs in PKR,” he told FMT.

He said “that’s the very reason” he believed a unity government with Mahathir at the helm would be difficult to establish.

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An exercise for people who are out of shape: Begin with a five-pound potato bag in each hand. Extend your arms straight out from your sides, hold them there for a full minute, and then relax. After a few weeks, move up to ten-pound potato bags. Then try 50-pound potato bags, and eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-pound potato bag in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute. Once you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each bag. —Beverly Gross

The stunning rebuff of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s plans to declare a state of emergency has been rightly hailed as a victory for Malaysia’s democracy. The message to Prime Minister Muhyiddin and all our fractious politicians from the Istana was clear enough: no need to short-circuit the democratic process by suspending Parliament, now is not the time for fresh elections, find a way to work together to manage the Covid-19 pandemic and the attendant economic challenges.

How it will play out, however, is far from clear.

In the first place, it puts the prime minister in an unenviable position. He rushed to the Istana last week seeking a quick declaration of emergency in the hope of presenting it as a fait accompli the same day. The King clearly refused to be pressured into making any hasty decisions. His insistence on consulting with his brother rulers before deciding also allowed the public at large an opportunity to weigh in on the issue.  They did just that, and in splendid fashion too, by roundly criticising the prime minister’s plans.

A royal rebuke – and that is what it was – is significant, serious and substantive.  It suggests a loss of confidence in the prime minister. Cumulatively, it means that Muhyiddin has now lost the confidence of the monarch, the parliament and the people and with that, whatever is left of his credibility. Something like this has never happened before. Only the most obdurate would not feel honour bound to resign.

Of course, the prime minister and his supporters are now trying to put the best possible spin on his abortive plans for an emergency by latching on to the monarch’s brief expression of confidence in the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. It does not, however, lessen the impact of the serious rebuke the prime minister has been dealt. If anything, it was perhaps a polite reminder to the prime minister as to where his priorities ought to lie.

The other takeaway from the Istana statement is that the monarch and his brother rulers remain deeply concerned about the endless political infighting and intrigue that has engulfed the country since the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government. Even before this, the royals had expressed anxiety over the situation and urged political leaders to find a way to settle their differences for the sake of the people. There are few signs, however, that the politicians are listening.


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• Shares of Sony in Japan were up 6.69% on Thursday afternoon in Tokyo.
  
• On Wednesday, Sony raised its forecast for its operating income by 13% to 700 billion yen (approx. $6.7 billion).
  
• Jefferies Asia’s Atul Goyal told CNBC he’s “extremely bullish” on Sony. The firm owns the stock and currently has a buy rating on Sony, with a price target of 13,230 yen per share — more than 50% higher than where the price currently sits.
  

China's aggressive policy of planting trees is likely playing a significant role in tempering its climate impacts.

An international team has identified two areas in the country where the scale of carbon dioxide absorption by new forests has been underestimated.

Taken together, these areas account for a little over 35% of China's entire land carbon "sink", the group says.

The researchers' analysis, based on ground and satellite observations, is reported in Nature journal.


A carbon sink is any reservoir - such as peatlands, or forests - that absorbs more carbon than it releases, thereby lowering the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.

China is the world's biggest source of human-produced carbon dioxide, responsible for around 28% of global emissions.

But it recently stated an intention to peak those emissions before 2030 and then to move to carbon neutrality by 2060.

The specifics of how the country would reach these goals is not clear, but it inevitably has to include not only deep cuts in fossil fuel use but ways also to pull carbon out of the atmosphere.

"Achieving China's net-zero target by 2060, recently announced by the Chinese President Xi Jinping, will involve a massive change in energy production and also the growth of sustainable land carbon sinks," said co-author Prof Yi Liu at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

"The afforestation activities described in [our Nature] paper will play a role in achieving that target," he told BBC News.

China's increasing leafiness has been evident for some time. Billions of trees have been planted in recent decades, to tackle desertification and soil loss, and to establish vibrant timber and paper industries.

The new study refines estimates for how much CO2 all these extra trees could be taking up as they grow.



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PETALING JAYA: Umno will be subverting its own interest if it accepts a deputy prime minister’s (DPM) position for one of its leaders, according to political analyst Awang Azman Pawi of Universiti Malaya.

“It’s short-term gain and long-term pain,” he told FMT in a comment on reports that Umno was considering several names to be proposed as its nominee for the DPM’s post. These includes Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Sembrong MP Hishammuddin Hussein.

Awang Azman said Umno would complicate matters both within itself and in its relations with PPBM if it was given the post.

He said the rejection of Zahid’s nomination would be a major blow to the party because it would be as if the position of PPBM president was superior to that of the Umno president when PPBM was, in fact, depending on Umno’s support for its political survival.


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Q: Why did the witches' team lose the baseball game?

A: Their bats flew away.

A boy asks his father, "Dad, are bugs good to eat?" "That's disgusting. Don't talk about things like that over dinner," the dad replies. After dinner the father asks, "Now, son, what did you want to ask me?" "Oh, nothing," the boy says. "There was a bug in your soup, but now it’s gone."