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Caffeine cancer claims dismissed, By Richard Alleyne

THE debate about the health benefits of coffee took a further twist yesterday when a survey dismissed claims that the beverage prevented bowel cancer.

Earlier studies had suggested that drinking up to four cups of coffee a day had a protective effect against the disease, one of the biggest killers in the Western world. The use of caffeine in radiotherapy treatment for the condition was also shown to be beneficial.

But Swedish research involving 61,000 people suggests that the earlier findings "may be premature". During the nine-year study, the Swedish team found no association between bowel cancer risk and coffee consumption.

The results, published in Gut, are bound to further the debate over the effectiveness of constantly bombarding the public with ever-changing medical findings. Lyndel Costain, a consultant nutritionist and a former spokesman for the British Dietetic Association, said: "People get cynical about all the different surveys which, in the end, can cloud the issue. One day something is said to be good for you, the next it is bad."

Coffee drinkers, used to having the beverage much maligned, had been boosted earlier this year by the results of a 12-month survey in the United States which showed that those who drank more than four cups a day cut their risk from bowel cancer by 24 per cent.

It was also discovered that caffeine greatly improved radiotherapy treatment of bowel cancer, a disease that kills more than 19,000 people a year. However, the new survey, which appears to be more comprehensive than its predecessor suggests that there is little or no effect.

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2001

Answers

I know if I don't eat anything, and just drink coffee, it feels like it's eating a hole in my stomache!

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2001