The Caffeine Advantage by Bennett Alan Weinberg and Bonnie Bealer, The Free Press, $24, ISBN 0743228960 Reviewed by Simon Ings
THE way we test new drugs blinds us to old ones. No one鈥檚 going to pay for drug trials of coffee, so any novel claims for its medical efficacy will by and large tend to be ignored.
Enter science writers Bennett Weinberg and Bonnie Bealer, out to demonstrate 鈥� with numerous supporting citations 鈥� how coffee improves athletic performance, boosts IQ, treats jet lag, reduces the risk of some cancers, and might even prevent the onset of Parkinson鈥檚 and Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.
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The Caffeine Advantage is a self-help book. (The end-of-chapter 鈥渟elf tests鈥� are great fun: FDA-style trials in your own living room.) Self help is not the authors鈥� usual m茅tier, and their self-consciousness comes through in their use of clich茅s and their early, defensive reference to 鈥渟erious scientists鈥�. But this needn鈥檛 put us off. Whether or not coffee 鈥渆nables us to realise our hidden potential and achieve our goals鈥�, the authors know enough about the culture of coffee to entertain, and enough about the science to enthuse and surprise.