You can stop slouching now.
Photo: iStockphoto
There is absolutely no basis to the claim that coffee drinking impairs growth in children, says Surprising Science. The origin of this belief seems to be tied to the PR machinations of nineteenth-century breakfast-food titan C.W. Post, who vilified caffeine as a way to market his own coffee substitute, which, fittingly, did not rob kids of “rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes.” The latest word from science is that coffee may even reduce the risk of dementia, diabetes, liver cancer, and heart disease. And it may make you a much nicer person. [Smithsonian, Earlier]
