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Coffee: The New Health Food? Plenty of health benefits are brewing in America’s beloved beverage.

By Sid Kirchheimer
WebMD Feature
Reviewed by Michael W. Smith, MD

Want a drug that could lower your risk of diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and colon cancer? That could lift your mood and treat headaches? That could lower your risk of cavities?

If it sounds too good to be true, think again.

Coffee, the much maligned but undoubtedly beloved beverage, just made headlines for possibly cutting the risk of the latest disease epidemic, type 2 diabetes. And the real news seems to be that the more you drink, the better….

1. Regular coffee is ground-up roasted coffee beans, which are the seeds of the coffee tree. instant coffee is made by, to cut a long process short, brewing coffee from regular coffee and then dehydrating it, leaving a powder that can be rehydrated to make "coffee".

2. Regular coffee tastes much better than instant coffee. Instant coffee is foul stuff; specialty (high-quality regular) coffee tastes good black.

3. Coffee shops make their coffee using regular coffee, of course! However, many coffee shops don’t use the drip method you would use at home. Instead they make espresso, which is a special type of coffee made by using an espresso machine to push a small amount of water through tightly packed coffee with great force, making a "shot" that’s only two ounces of coffee but has the coffee flavor of a whole cup. You can make espresso at home, but to make really good espresso requires an expensive machine and much practice.

A delicious coffeecake from The Lodge at Vail, Vail, CO.

Yeilds: 1 8inch square cake

Igredients:
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (Splenda Brown Sugar)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 egg, beaten (or egg substitute)
1/2 cup reduced fat 2% milk
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar (Splenda)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups mixed berries (blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry)

Directions:
In a small bowl, add the first 3 ingredients; stir to combine and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, add the egg, milk, yogurt, oil, and vanilla; stir until blended.
In another bowl, add in the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; stir to mix.
Pour the egg mixture over the flour mixture and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.
Fold in berries and pour into a greased 8X8 inch baking pan.
Sprinkle with reserved brown sugar-pecan topping and lightly press into the batter.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a pick comes out clean.
Let cool for 5 minutes, cut into squares and serve.
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Low Fat Cinnamon Sour Cream Coffee Cake

This is a great dessert to have in your repertoire. It’s low in fat, takes very little time to make and it always comes out well.

Ingredients
1 unsweetened applesauce
2 1/2 C. granulated sugar, divided use (you can even use 1/2 Splenda and Sugar for less calories)
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 C. liquid egg substitute
3 C. unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 C. fat-free dairy sour cream
2 Tbs. ground cinnamon
1/2 C. chopped walnuts, toasted

Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-inch tube pan. In large mixing bowl, combine fat replacement and 2 C. sugar; beat until fluffy. Stir in vanilla. Add liquid egg substitute, 1/4 C. at a time, beating after each addition. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add alternately with sour cream to other mixture, beating enough after each addition to keep batter smooth. Spoon 1/3 batter into prepared pan.

In a bowl, combine cinnamon, nuts and remaining sugar. Sprinkle 1/3 of the mixture on batter in pan. Repeat layers of batter and cinnamon mixture 2 more times. Bake in heated oven 1 hour 10 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack before serving.

Yield: 16 servings

Nutritional info: 299 calories (9% calories from fat); 8g protein; 3g fat;
62g carbohydrates; 0mg cholesterol; 341mg sodium

However, I do not have baking powder or baking soda.

What can I make with some of the ingredients listed above?
Thanks!
Yes it’s self raising flour

Make the cake as normal except, put only the yolks in the cake and not the whites and if your recipe calls for oil, use applesauce instead.. Take the mix all the way to point where it would go into the pans, then set the bowl aside.

In another large bowl, using 5 egg whites, beat them until they form very stiff peaks.

Then add the egg whites to the cake mixture and CAREFULLY and GENTLY fold them together until mixed but as little as possible. Place in the oven and bake as usual. This may need to be cooked a little longer but not less time so don’t open the oven until at least the recommended time is up.

Check with a toothpick.

I know my downfall is going to be my "first thing in the morning" hot beverage!
I usually like to start the day off with a hot cup of decaffeinated coffee, but coffee will soon be off the agenda.

It’s important to understand that part of the appeal of the coffee first thing in the morning is that it’s warm and comforting - especially on these cold winter mornings.

Can anyone suggest a suitable healthy alternative?

fresh orange

all the hotels can not be wrong?