Dear Healthy Friend,

Today, Jo'burg is wet, miserable and cold... But there's almost nothing better than wrapping your hands around a hot, steaming mug of coffeee! It warms you up from the inside out! But hang on just a sec... Isn't coffee bad for me? I've been told it is!

But there's new research that suggests it may actually be the best thing for me!

In the name of good health,

Taryn Strugnell
Managing Editor of Nutrition & Healing

Fill UP your mug and watch your stroke risk go DOWN
Alice Wessendorf,
Agora Health Books

If you’re a coffee drinker, the news just keeps getting better and better.

First, we learned that the java juice is associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline. Then we found out that it appears to lower your risk for type II diabetes. Heck, the much-maligned beverage has even been indicated as a possible cancer-fighter.

Now it looks as if we could add "lowers your risk of stroke" to the list of good things this so-called bad habit could do for you.

In fact, according to a Swedish study published online in March in Stroke: The Journal of the American Heart Association, drinking more than one cup of coffee per day is associated with a 22% to 25% lower risk!

And it looks as if this is a case where "more" doesn’t hurt. The positive effect that coffee had on stroke risk was there regardless of whether participants drank one or two cups, three to four cups, or even five or more cups per day.

Also exciting news was the finding that the lower-risk factor remained even after the researchers looked at smoking status, body-mass index, a history of diabetes, alcohol consumption and hypertension among the volunteers. In other words, regardless of whether or not you have any of those known heart risks you may be able to reap the benefits of coffee.

The Swedish researchers offered several possible explanations for how coffee could have this powerful effect. It may help reduce subclinical inflammation - the same type of inflammation associated with prediabetes and hypertension. It could be working its magic by helping to reverse oxidative stress. (Makes sense, since we already know that coffee is packed with antioxidant polyphenols.) And it looks as if coffee may also improve insulin sensitivity, which has been associated with stroke.

Oh, and for those of you who like to drink your coffee with a dollop of milk... I have more good news. A study published last year in the Journal of Nutrition found that the addition of whole milk to your favourite morning drink doesn't affect the bioavailability of the antioxidants in the coffee.

Just be sure you are using an organic brand of milk. Better yet, if you can get your hands on it, try some raw milk instead.

So as I sit here at my desk finishing my second cup of coffee this morning, I encourage you to quietly forward this article to your family members or friends who may have been nagging you to give up your coffee habit. Who knows? It could mark the last time you have to hear it.

Thinking that even a bad cup of coffee is better than no coffee at all, I am...

The lowdown on 6

Q: I read that it's unlikely that anyone would be deficient in omega-6 fatty acids since they're found in most vegetable oils. Is that true?

Dr. Wright: Omega-6 fatty acids are found in nuts and seeds, so it would seem logical that oils extracted and produced from them should contain adequate amounts. However, there are several steps in the production process of and use of vegetable oils (corn, sunflower seed, safflower seed, sesame seed, soybean, flaxseed, etc.) that basically destroy most of the oils' real nutrient value.

When manufacturers extract oil from seeds, they usually leave behind most of the vitamin E and other antioxidants originally present in the various seeds. Plus, as soon as the oils are extracted, they start to oxidise.

Storage of seed oils, especially in containers at home, involves repeated exposure to oxygen as the containers are opened and closed again, which causes further oxidation. Then, when you heat up these seed oils to cook food, they're oxidised some more and more of their nutritional quality is compromised.

Given all of these opportunities for oxidation, it's a small marvel we get useful omega-6 fatty acids from seed oils at all!

But it's possible to ward off at least a little of this oxidation. First, add at least 800 to 1,000 units of vitamin E to each container of oil as soon as it's opened. This not only hFSP Healthelps keep the oil from oxidising as quickly, but it also helps to make up for what gets lost in the production process). From there, try to limit your consumption of these types of oils to uses that don't involve heating them (as a salad dressing, for example).

Keep in mind, though, the best sources of the omega-6 fatty acids are whole unroasted nuts and seeds. And remember that even though you do need omega-6 fatty acids, the omega-3s should "outnumber" them.