Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Soon, kids in Chiapas, Mexico, including the 9-year-old drinking coffee at left, will be able to get the popular drink fortified with iron and folic acid.

Working with the local government, Houston-based Voyava Republic and Mexican coffee cooperative La Selva are marketing fortified organic coffee to combat anemia and aid women's health (both public health concerns in the region). They plan to hand out the drink to elementary school students next year.

Young children can suffer if they don't consume enough nutrients, Emory University professor of international nutrition Reynaldo Martorell says, but coffee is not the most appropriate means to get them into kids.

What about fears that drinking coffee can lead to jitters, headaches, insomnia, calcium loss and caffeine addiction? Voyava Republic chief executive Michael Sweeney dismisses such concerns. "Consumption of too much coffee is something that we frown upon . . . but in many countries, it's a daily consumed beverage" for kids.

Some studies have linked coffee drinking in adults with reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease (for men) and Alzheimer's.

-- Kathleen Hom