Last Sunday, I returned to my apartment from a pleasant early-morning swim. I was in a good mood until I discovered … there was no coffee in my house. No coffee? How did this happen? Oh, that’s right. The day before, a very long workday, I had consumed the coffee that was currently in my cupboard. That’s how this happened. Luckily within 15 minutes I had purchased fresh coffee beans and picked up a lovely coffee-on-the-go and all was right with the world.

I thought of that incident this morning when I caught the headline “A Daily Habit of Green Tea or Coffee Cuts Stroke Risk” on the NPR health blog. The synopsis of the story is that a large study in Japan demonstrated that drinking green tea or coffee daily has various, and significant, health benefits. Once-upon-a-time people tried to avoid coffee and caffeine had a bad rap. But those 1980s studies? According to the NPR piece, during that time coffee drinking and heavy smoking were intertwined. And good researchers know that it is difficult to isolate lifestyle factors. So perhaps there are other lifestyle reasons why the people drinking green tea and coffee in this study had a lower risk of stroke.

In the meantime, I’m going to go ahead and enjoy the fact that my cupboard is again well-stocked with coffee.