There are few news subjects more reliably depressing than nutritional science.
The surprisingly strong case for feeling great about your coffee habit
Your morning coffee is one of modern life’s underrated miracles.
Jacques Julien/Getty Images
Bryan Walsh is a senior editorial director at Vox overseeing the climate teams and the Unexplainable and The Gray Area podcasts. He is also the editor of Vox’s Future Perfect section and writes the Good News newsletter. He worked at Time magazine for 15 years as a foreign correspondent in Asia, a climate writer, and an international editor, and he wrote a book on existential risk.
A glance at the headlines will tell you that sugar is bad for you, red meat is bad for you, and alcohol is really, really bad for you. The message seems to be that if a food or drink gives you even an iota of pleasure, it’s almost certain that your body will pay for it, sooner or later.
But there is one exception, a glorious concoction that was first consumed in ninth-century Ethiopia, that fueled the Age of Enlightenment, that has kept our troops going from the Revolutionary War to today. It is one of the first globally traded commodities, connecting producers in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia to consumers around the world in a $245 billion market. It can be had flat or steamed, long or short, hot or iced, black or with milk, and in any number of combinations that end in the letters “-cino.”
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