DEAR DOCTORS: Where do we stand on coffee these days? It seems like there's always a new study that says either coffee is healthy or that it's bad for you. I've even read that coffee helps your brain stay sharp. I love my daily morning cup and hope that the most recent news about coffee is good.
DEAR READER: For as long as people have been drinking coffee, they have been arguing about it. Historians trace coffee's origins to wild plants found in Ethiopia, and its emergence as a global beverage to the mid-1400s. Over the centuries, a variety of religious, political, economic and health-based bans on coffee have been enacted, all to no avail.
