If you want to boost your immune system and prevent or fight cancer, should you drink coffee?  No one really knows for sure how beneficial or harmful coffee is, so it is hard to say.  Without more conclusive evidence, it comes down to a personal choice. 

Some experts believe that coffee is bad for your health because it can lead to heart disease, hypertension, cancer and addiction.  Other experts believe that coffee is a wonderful antioxidant, which can improve or repair cells in our bodies and can lower our bad cholesterol.

What we do know about coffee is that chemicals and carcinogens occur naturally in the making of coffee.  They include acetaldehyde, acetic acid, acetone, atractylosides, butanol, cafestol, palmitate, chlorogenic acid, dimethyl sulfide, furan, furfural, guaiacol, hydrogen sulfide, isoprene, methyl, glyoxal, propionaldehyde, pyridine, and 1-3-7-trimethylxanthine.

Many cancer experts recommend that cancer patients not drink anything with caffeine, a naturally occurring substance found in tea, cocoa beans, kola nuts and coffee beans.

Caffeine:

• Increases dopamine levels
• Sends a message to our brain, which our pituitary gland perceives as an alert, causing our adrenal glands to release adrenaline
• Is a diuretic
• Can make you feel nervous or uneasy
• Promotes headaches

There is a debate between filtered and non-filtered coffee and decaf and caffeinated coffee.  Most of the research is still inconclusive, but what we do know based on the extensive research already done is that coffee affects people differently; like everything else, what might be good for you might not be so good for someone else.    If you have cancer, consult your doctor to determine what’s best for you.

If you buy non-organic coffee, there is a good chance that you will also be drinking trace amounts of pesticides and other chemicals, which could harm your immune system.  Consuming coffee moderately, however, does not elevate a person’s risk of developing cancer, because our body detoxifies small doses of these chemicals.  If you have cancer, however, and your doctor tells you it is Ok to drink coffee, you should definitely buy organic.