Science News - April 24, 2010

75 milligrams

caffeine in one shot of starbucks espresso

260 milligrams

caffeine in a 12-ounce starbucks coffee

Darker coffee, less stomach acid

Roasting coffee beans doesn’t just
impart bold, rich flavor. it also creates
a compound that helps dial down pro-
duction of stomach acid, according to
research presented on march 21.
veronika somoza of the University of
vienna and her colleagues extracted
compounds, including caffeine and
n-methylpyridinium, a ringed compound
not found in green coffee beans but
created in the roasting process, from
regular commercial coffee blends.
dark roasted coffee had more
than 30 milligrams per liter of nmP
compared with 22 mg/l in the lighter
roasts. Human stomach cells treated
with coffee that had medium or high
concentrations of nmP secreted far
less acid than cells treated with cof-
fee containing the least amount of
nmP. And the activity of many of the
genes and proteins involved in this
gastric secretion were quashed in
cells exposed to nmP-rich coffee.

Walnuts may slow prostate cancer

Prostate tumors grew more slowly in mice fed a diet rich in walnuts, Paul davis of the University of california, davis reported march 22.

Previous work has shown that
walnuts can benefit the heart by fight-
ing inflammation and allowing blood
vessels to dilate. davis notes that
inflammation also plays a role in many
cancers, and that walnuts can tinker
with production of endothelin, a protein
that helps regulate prostate growth.

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