To judge by recent headlines, coffee could be the latest health-food craze, right up there with broccoli and whole-wheat bread.

    從近期的新聞標題來看，咖啡或許正引領著最新的健康飲食潮流，同樣榜上有名的還有西蘭花和全麥面包。

    But don't think you'll be healthier graduating from a tall to a venti just yet. While there has been a splash of positive news about coffee lately, there may still be grounds for concern.

    不過，別以為把手中的咖啡從中杯升級到超大杯，你就會變得更健康。盡管最近有關咖啡有些好消息，但或許我們還是有擔心的理由。

    This month alone, an analysis in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that people who drink three to four cups of java a day are 25% less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who drink fewer than two cups. And a study presented at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting found that men who drink at least six cups a day have a 60% lower risk of developing advanced prostate cancer than those who didn't drink any.

    僅僅在去年12月一個月的時間里，首先是《內科學檔案》（Archives of Internal Medicine）的一篇分析報告發現，每天飲用三到四杯咖啡的人比每天喝少于兩杯咖啡的人患II型糖尿病的幾率要低25%.此外，美國癌癥研究學會 （American Association for Cancer Research）會議上的一項研究表明，每天飲用至少六杯咖啡的男性比從來不喝咖啡的男性患晚期前列腺癌的幾率要低60%.

    Earlier studies also linked coffee consumption with a lower risk of getting colon, mouth, throat, esophageal and endometrial cancers. People who drink coffee are also less likely to have cavities, gallstones, cirrhosis of the liver, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, or to commit suicide, studies have found. Last year, researchers at Harvard University and the University of Madrid assessed data on more than 100,000 people over 20 years and concluded that the more coffee they drank, the less likely they were to die during that period from any cause.

    早前的研究還認為飲用咖啡有可能會降低患結腸癌、口腔癌、喉癌、食道癌和子宮內膜癌的風險。研究發現，喝咖啡的人患齲齒、膽結石、肝硬化、帕金森氏癥、老年癡呆癥以及自殺的概率也較低。去年，哈佛大學（Harvard University）和馬德里大學（University of Madrid）的研究人員對10多萬人超過二十年的數據進行了分析，并且得出了這樣的結論：喝咖啡越多，這些人在研究階段里死于疾病的可能性就越小。

    But those studies come on the heels of older ones showing that coffee-particularly the caffeine it contains-raises blood pressure, heart rate and levels of homocysteine, an amino acid in blood that is associated with stroke and heart disease. Pregnant women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day have a higher rate of miscarriages and lower birth-weight babies; caffeine has also been linked to benign breast lumps and bone loss in elderly women. And, as many people can attest, coffee can also aggravate anxiety, irritability, heartburn and sleeplessness, which brings its own set of problems, including a higher risk of obesity. Yet it's just that invigorating buzz that other people love and think they can't get through the day without.

    但是，上述研究之前的研究結果表明，咖啡──尤其是其中的咖啡因成份──會讓血壓升高、心跳加快，還會提高血液里一種與中風和心臟病有關聯的氨基酸同型半胱氨酸的水平。每天喝兩杯或兩杯以上咖啡的孕婦流產幾率更高，所生嬰兒體重較輕的比例也會高一些。咖啡因還被認為與良性乳房腫塊和老年女性的骨質疏松有關。此外，正如許多人深有體會的那樣，咖啡還會加重人們的焦躁易怒情緒、胃灼熱以及失眠狀況，而這將帶來一系列的問題，其中包括更高的肥胖風險。然而，正是咖啡能令人精神煥發的傳言讓一些人愛不釋手，并將咖啡視為每天都不可或缺的東西。