Dopiate of the Masses

Richard Brookhiser writes, “Coffee is good for us” (“Elixir of Life,” July 11). Citing a New York Times report on a study alleging that drinking coffee lowers the risk of mortality, he does not mention another part of the story: “There may be other lifestyle factors contributing to that lower mortality risk among people who drink coffee, like a healthy diet or a consistent exercise routine.” To be fair, he proceeds to argue that fans of coffee would drink it even if it were harmful, so tied up in their daily rituals has it become. About this, I have little doubt. Coffee has taken over this country. So many rely on it simply to get through their days that it becomes hard to ignore how caffeine, the drink’s central component, bears the chemical signature of, essentially, a drug.

Brookhiser is also cavalier about coffee’s effect on sleep, but studies seem to confirm at least some effect. At a time when people are, on the whole, sleeping less, with all the worrying attendant ills, endorsing a stimulant strikes me as dubious. And for society as a whole to be so reliant on one substance has worrying echoes of Frank Herbert’s Dune, in which a future civilization depends on a drug for many essential functions.

Fortunately for Earthlings, there is an alternative, one preferred by those of us who like to generate our own energy and focus: Just say no to coffee.

Jack Butler