==JAPAN: KM== [Science]

" It is more wonderful than one thousand kisses, and sweeter than muscat wine. Coffee, I can't stop drinking coffee." These sentences are a well-known part of a satiric comedy, " Coffee cantata ", the first performance of which was once given at a cafe in Leipzig by Johann Sebastian Bach. Yes, I love coffee. I drink it very often after meals. At least, I drink it three times a day ------- in my room alone after breakfast and dinner, and in the classroom of my university with my friends after lunch. In addition, I sometimes also drink it different ways for a change. Usually, I drink coffee with milk and sugar, but I drink black coffee when eating something sweet.
Judging from the above, some people might think that I'm particular about coffee, especially about a certain flavor. But that is not true. In fact I'm not especially particular about the flavor, for I simply like coffee itself. If it is called " coffee ", I will drink anything, even though the contents of a cup are mocha or kilimanjaro, UCC's or Key Coffee's instant coffee. ( Instant coffee is very reasonable, because a jar costs about 500 yen and we can make about 50 cups from it, so a cup of coffee comes to just about 10 yen. Cheap!! )
But my friends said to me, " Coffee has bad effects on your stomach, especially, strong black coffee does." I like strong coffee. As I stated above, I also often drink black coffee. Sometimes they said, " I've heard that coffee can cause a stomach ulcer." That reminds me. I sometimes have a strange feeling in my stomach. I've been a little bit anxious. But when I was 19, my good friend used to dissolve instant coffee powder into the hot water of his cup until it reached the saturation point, and then drank it. Although I only watched him, my stomach seemed to ache, but I had never heard that he actually harmed his health. I began to say to the friends, " No problem. Coffee doesn't harm one's health." but stopped, for I remembered that he also loved health foods very much as well as strong coffee and that the desk of his room was always filled with healthy drinks or health tablets, and so on!
I hadn't known what was true, so I tried to research the effect of coffee on one's health. Then I got good information for myself. Actually, coffee doesn't have bad effects but rather good effects on one's health, and that has been proven medically.
First, the British Coffee Science Information Center reports that according to the center's research, drinking coffee is not related to stomach ulcers, and also reports that drinking black coffee even in one's hungry state doesn't have bad effects on one's stomach. In short, it is not right that people should attribute one's bad stomach to coffee. On the contrary, in 1990, the International Association of Research in Cancer even reported that an analysis of the research on cancer over the whole world showed that coffee has the effect of preventing colon cancer or rectal cancer. Generally speaking, the number of coffee lovers who also love smoking or drinking or eating fatty foods tends to be high, and those things can cause one's bad stomach.
There are a lot of effects from the viewpoint of metabolism. A cup of coffee increases the speed of blood flow for about two hours, so body temperatures of coffee lovers are high and that promotes combustion of their fatty tissues. And, in June of 1988, the Arteriosclerosis Society of Japan reported that coffee increases the HDL cholesterol, which metabolizes the extra cholesterol, so prevents hardening of the arteries. And moreover, coffee is good for a hangover, which takes place when, after alcohol changes into acetaldehyde, this acetaldehyde isn't readily oxidized and overstimulates the nerves. The caffeine which coffee includes promotes functions of the liver and the kidneys, so acetaldehyde is quickly resolved. Caffeine has a diuretic function, so wastes which are broken down are quickly excreted.
Coffee has various effects also from the viewpoint of the stimulation. It heightens one's concentration and makes one's movement lively by stimulating one's central nerves. The beat of the heart becomes strong and the blood stream becomes smooth, so people who can't get up quickly in every morning because of hypotension can make themselves more lively. For people who have hypertension, coffee is expected to reduce their blood pressures because of making capillaries broad, and increasing the spread of peripheral vessels, and also getting the blood stream to flow smoothly.
I had been examining the effects of coffee, and thought how wonderfully we can improve our health using the common thing like coffee. Then I decided to tell the truth about coffee to the friends who made me afraid, and to advise them to drink it. "..., and that's how it really is. You know, why don't you drink coffee? Coffee does not have bad effects. On the contrary it has good effects on your health. I..." In no time came the reply, " OK, OK. I admit that coffee has good effects on my health, but I do not want to drink it." " Why? You said,"" I admit..."" just now, didn't you?" " Yes, but I just don't like it."
Perhaps I will never become a great ambassador for coffee, but I will remain a devoted follower.


"Getting It Together"

Coffee is my favorite thing, so I wanted to dispel a misunderstanding about coffee. But coffee is very common thing, so some people might not want to read my essay because of its common theme. That thing made my writing very difficult. So I tried to take in medical things because we are medical students. The things I want you to see are the medical effects of coffee. When I examined the effects of coffee on the Internet, there was a lot of information, so I had trouble in choosing only useful information. But when I finished it, I was satisfied that I was able to write such a long and hard essay in English. I think that the theme was adequate for me. It is important to find a theme that you can be interested in, I think.