Not all the news is bad

A new study by a University of Scranton professor, Jon Vinson, has found that coffee is the best natural source of antioxidants, substances in many foods that, according to the National Cancer Institute, help protect cells in the body from damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals. Among other harms, free radicals may cause cancer.

Along with other good news -- that red wine improves cardiovascular health and life expectancy and wards off the common cold; that dark chocolate helps prevent diabetes and lowers blood pressure; that virgin olive oil, is not only good for the heart, but also helps block the development and spread of colon cancer; and that garlic, the staff of life, will cure everything from cardiovascular disease to the plague -- I feel blessed to have spent so many years doing the right thing.

Given what she was told, your mother was doing the best she could when she tried to get you to eat your broccoli, but she might have done better to have poured a little vino on your Cocopops.

And now, it turns out, java is superior in the antioxidant department to such foods as carrots, collard greens, wheat germ and kale that we have been made to feel guilty about not eating. It only remains for someone to document the incontrovertable health benefits of Häagen-Dazs coffee & almond crunch....