COFFEE: YES OR NO? – Organophosphate toxicity risk?

Posted on: 01-27-2011 Category: Human Health Articles, Performance Nutrition

Blended excerpts from Potential Within A Guide to Nutritional Empowerment

Authored by Franco Cavaleri ISBN 0-9731701-0-7

This article is composed of multiple excerpts to result in tone and content shifts and reference numbering that may be out of order.

The effects of coffee on health constitute a tremendous controversy. One expert advocates coffee consumption and another completely opposes it.

The biological consequences of organochloride and organophosphate pesticides have been clear for decades, yet the agricultural bottom line still prevails over human health.Organophosphates are powerful neurotoxins. In fact, their original design was intended for chemical warfare as nerve gas. In small doses organophosphates are effective killers of crop-destructive pests. Agricultural experts claim that this minuscule exposure doesn’t damage the human biological system. But organophosphates aren’t just in our food. They’re sprayed in backyard flower and vegetable gardens, and in lumberyards to protect lumber from infestation.

Organophosphates are employed profusely in many countries that Canada and the United States import food from—coffee and cocoa bean producers included. Small but frequent neurotoxin exposure can accumulate to impose significant consequences. If you’re a big coffee drinker, you’re simply further concentrating your exposure to environmental- and foodborne toxicity. Ironically the Type II diabetic state impairs the natural enzyme system that protects us from incoming organophosphates (52).

We can tolerate minute quantities of this neurotoxic compound, but not when

our specialized enzyme systems are damaged. Adding this toxicity to a body that has difficulty detoxifying increases the danger of disease; however, if the metabolism were functional, this small exposure could be neutralized with ease. Diabetes insipidus (a kidney/water-regulatory disorder that induces uncontrollable thirst) and hyperglycemia (high blood sugar possibly due to insulin resistance) can be attributed to organophosphates, as well. This toxicity is also associated with glucose in the urine. These symptoms point to kidney and pancreatic damage (53, 54).

Organophosphate-induced hyperglycemia/insulin inefficiency might be the real cause for the findings at the University of Guelph. However, we don’t know if the Guelph study used organically grown coffee that was confirmed to be organophosphate or organochloride-free. Organophosphates and organochlorides interrupt the endocrine system, impairing androgenic activity and facilitating estrogenic activity in the body. Organophosphate toxicity escalates cortisol levels, impairs thyroid output, and lowers follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) secretions by the pituitary gland. The last-mentioned endocrine influence hampers sperm production and ovulation—in other words, fertility (55). Studies have revealed that some women today reach childbearing maturity earlier than ever before. That doesn’t imply that the sole cause of this premature maturation is estrogenic toxicity from the environment.

Today’s better nutrition and advanced health care contribute to a more rapid development toward biological maturity to prepare women for childbearing sooner. However, other indicators demonstrate that environmental toxicity with these estrogenic compounds is a major factor in the development of associated diseases such as a high rate of breast and endometrial cancer and general endocrine imbalances in both men and women.

The cognitive implications of organophosphate and organochloride exposure are obvious. These chemicals stimulate neurons to death. The doses we’re subject to today won’t kill us immediately, but long-term exposure is significant. Cognitive disorders such as ADHD are likely consequences of many factors, including these pest poisons, as are other common neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Elimination of just one of these contributing factors can give the body the break it needs to

deal with the damage or at least cope longer.

Organophosphates damage neuron function in many ways to induce immediate cell death, and with low-level intoxication they initiate interference that can have long-lasting secondary consequences such as cognitive

deficits (56, 57, 58, 59). In addition to displaying anti-cholinesterase activity (intense neuron firing), there is evidence that other neurological proteins are affected by these chemicals.

The answer to the ‘Coffee Yes or No’

YES, coffee is not only not bad for you it supplies many health benefits as long as it is organic and brewed immediately after it has been ground.

Organic – to avoid the obvious organophosphate and other toxin dangers

and

Fresh ground – to limit oxidation of the nutritional benefits within the bean; to be able to garner the rich antioxidant load that the coffee bean supplies and prevent oxidation of the fatty acids within the bean. Once oxidized these rancid fatty acids contribute to gastrointestinal inflammation.

IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE:

Caffeine inhibits specific liver P450 enzymes increasing the half life of some commonly used pain and anti-inflammatory medicines. This activity ultimately raises the survival time in the blood.

Caution is in order as this changes the drug pharmacology to increase drug effectiveness.

These contraindications and interactions are detailed in the Nutraceutical-Pharmaceutical Contraindications database of this website

About the Author

Franco
Franco Cavaleri, a prominent nutritional biochemist, is the founder of multiple successful health research and development corporations each serving different niches: Champion’s Choice Advanced Nutrition, a sports nutrition company; Biologic Nutritional Research Inc., a health and wellness company.