Better still, replace the diet soda with green tea. More than two cups of coffee per day has its own associated risks.

That's one thing I can't blame for my moods. I rarely drink pop any more and always hated the artificially sweetened stuff. Now that I'm diabetic, I just avoid pop as much as I can. I prefer teas (real ones, not the "Brisk" iced tea-flavoured pop crap) anyway.

Mendalla

This is what I have done BetteTheRed. I have not had a diet Coke since New Years Eve. I don't think I ever found myself to be depressed but I definitely feel better. I wish I could drink it though, but I'm abstaining cause I am on a healthy living plan.

Was it actually shown their risk of depression increased, or was this just an observational study that showed a correlation?

People are quick to jump to a cause effect relationship, even if it doesn't exist.

the Buddha vindicated again by modern science...huzzah! :3

everything in moderation

Chremgal: it was a very large, medium duration (10-year) study in the U.S. It has been in several news streams but I hadn't seen it in Canada: I got it mostly from the BBC.

The research involved 265,000 people between the ages of 50 and 71, whose consumption of beverages like soda, tea, coffee, and fruit punch was monitored from 1995 to 1996. Ten years on, scientists questioned the participants again and found that 11,311 had been diagnosed with depression since 2000. 

The study was conducted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Cancer Institute.

I thought is was interesting that it offered so much encouragement and comfort to me as a sometimes less than restrained coffee drinker.

Depression has never bothered me… must be the coffee. (By which I mean, there are clearly larger more important impacts than coffee or diet pop and, if you compared, say, commuting methods, or home-cookers Vs restaurant diners, you could probably  find other small but consistent differences.)

Mike I have been taught to be precise when discussing the results, so I get annoyed when researches say things like the case I highlighted above.  I also get fed up with the reporting done on science, I caught a bit last night on the news and they made it sound like it was a cause and effect relationship, which many people seem to quickly grab onto.

From what you've posted, the observational study is worse than I thought, with them following their beverages for a year and then looking at the diagnosed depression levels years later without following up to see if their choice of beverage had changed!

Of course, I don't drink coffee, maybe if I did I would just smile when hearing about this study.  :)

Hi  … You really MUST get seriously attached to coffee: not only is it an amazingly effective prophylactic against depression, it also give you a sense of of the essential silliness of the World… wait!

… that's the same thing isn't it?

Ease up on the researchers: they have to find funding somehow these days.

For a grant proposal, I give them slack. I do wish there were more science journalists around. That might help with some of the silly media hype. Of course, those who get hired might just hype things up like Dr. Oz.

As for coffee, just the smell turns my stomach! lol I think forcing it down every day would make me depressed.

I'm not a big fan of soda. I'm more of a herbal tea person (unsweetened for the most part, sometimes with honey). As for coffee I've never understood how something that smells that nice can taste so nasty.

very rarely do i drink pop... 4 cups of coffee a day for me.

i do drink juice and water alot, too.

i have a roaring depression, though... have had it since my teens.  it practically GALLOPS through our family. 

it should be starting up here again soon... usually the jan.-feb.-march time of year is tough for me.

Hey gecko . . . I'll substitute tea . . . I hope today finds you well too!
 

WOOT!  Happy to be a coffee drinker, from the time my feet hit the floor in the a.m. to about noon.  Late afternoon or evening, I'll join you beloved in a cuppa...  I'd also like to thank you for that greeting gecko!  That's one I'LL pass on.  "Cheers" all :)

All the happier now that we gave ourselves a Keurig for Christmas rather than a SodaStream.

Thinking of those who live with intermittent or constant states of depression.

Hope this winter season is not too hard on you.

******************

Chemgal, I too get frustrated by correlation and causation being confused.  It happens a lot in my profession especially by those who do not understand technology

Jae - what do you think of your new Keurig coffee maker?  We thought of getting one but then realised that each cup of coffee would cost about $1 and put some trash in the garbage.  I'm not interested in creating unnecessary garbage so we didn't buy one. 

I made the same decision, Kay for the same reason.

Now there's a post that made me smile Pinga.

Most people tell me they don't care about the money or the garbage.  One said "What's the problem with garbage - that's what trash cans and garbage dumps are for"!

I looked at them seriously last fall.  Did the analysis, looked at the various "water" options and cup options and went "this is nuts".

I purchased an electric percolator on sale.  Makes great coffee, nice flavours and the coffee stays HOT.

I have a little stove-top espresso maker but can't afford the really good beans that make it truly wonderful (I sometimes get a can a can of Illy for a birthday or Christmas). I also use a French press/caffetiere: they give you greatest control over the flavour. I don't like machines like Keurigs on principle — incredibly expensive for a start — or things that stew coffee… I like fresh ground dark roast freshly made, strong, black no sugar. Grrrrrrrrrowwwffff!!!! Yes!

Hi kay,

We really like our new Keurig. It makes a great cup of coffee.

I hear your concerns about the cost and waste involved.

Because of the cost (which is high but lower than a coffee at Timmys or McD, and certainly lower than a coffee at 2ndCup or *bucks) we each drink no more than a cup of Keurig a day (that'd be 3 in grand total).

Also, we have discovered that, despite what the producers say, the Kcups can be used more than once. We use each Kcup twice, thus dropping the cost of a coffee to fifty-cents, and cutting the waste we would be producing in half.

We go through at tops 2 Kcups a day. That's a lot less waste than some people go through at the Timmys I work at, who are ordering three or four large coffees each day.

Rich blessings. 

I'm glad you shared the way you use your coffee maker, there is some useful info there.  Cutting the waste in half is a worthwhile step - and i realise that everyone isn't as willing to try to cut their household waste to almost nothing,  Cuttin the cost in half is great!

We couldn;t factor in any savings from Timmy's or Starbucks etc because we just don;t buy cups of coffee when away from home.

Aren't there plastic cups that you can put your own coffee into?  I'm not sure if they were K-cups or T-cups or whatever else there is.  I figure for tea drinkers we already have a quick and simple solution, it's called a tea bag :)  The loose leaf tea is a little more work so if I'm in a rush I use one of my teas already in a bag.

I have a Keurig and love it.  Like MC, I will use a Kcup twice to make one large cup first thing in the a.m.  But don't you know there's a permanent filter that allows you to use your own coffee as well?  It's now always about filling the trash with disposed Kcup plastic :)  For me, it's about getting a quick, fresh and hot cup of coffee.

That's true everinjeans, I had forgotten about the reusable Kcup. We will have to get one of those. We just got the machine, so haven't purchased the reusable filter yet. Perhaps this upcoming weekend.

Rich blessings.

There are reusable Kcups chemgal, and my family really should go and purchase one. The reusable cup is an advantage that Keurig offers over their leading competitor. Tassamo offers no such item.

What kind of tea do you drink? My sisters are in love with something called "David's Tea." I think that's a brand name. They seem to have several different flavors of the stuff.

Rich blessings.

Like most families kay, mine could be doing more for the environment. We do participate in the city of Toronto's waste and food recycling programs. We could make more of an effort though to reduce and reuse. How about your family? 

In today's society that's pretty rare. We eat out too much, and enjoy getting a coffee from time to time. We always stop at Timmys at least once when travelling.

Rich blessings.

My boyfriend just bought a Keurig and I have falling in love with it. As I have never made coffee at home before I was loving it over Christmas break.  We've priced it out and we can get each cup for about 89 cents if we look for the sales. I will have to metion using the cups twice and look into the reusable ones, I didn't know they existed. 

One of the reason we really like the Keurig is because you can get different flavours and not have to brew an entire pot. My boyfriend likes the breakfast blends where I prefer the hazel or vanilla flavoured. His parents also use it and like it as his mom prefers lighter roast while his dad prefers darker, if they brew a pot they try to go somewhere in the middle but this allows them to have what they both like.
 

As to the origional thread question, my first thought was to ask why the subjects were drinking diet drinks in the first place. If they are drinking it in an attempt to lose weight (for example) I'd guess that indicates a lower self esteem and a higher chance of depression anyway, which would skew the results greatly.

Good to hear your interest in reusable filters MCJae.

You asked about our family's environmental efforts - and shared yours.  I expect almost every household could make less trash, but sometimes it is hard and sometimes we just want the convenience.  All I can say is - we try and hope others do too. 

We compost year round, use cloth shopping bags most of the time (sometimes one of us suddenly remembers to get something when they don't have a bag along).  We mostly cook from 'scratch' ingredients bought from bulk bins so have very few packets and cans. Most of our meat comes from a nearby home based butcher who is qualified and approved for slaughtering. We no longer buy magazines or newspapers (books still seem to worm their way into our house though).

So far we haven't found a way we can comfortably live without power, gas, running water or a vehicles (though we only have one between us).  We decided against winter holidays in a warmer spot and summer holidays are camping style, fairly close to home. 

My adult kids barely think about conservation - the spend money as fast (or faster) than they make it, they drive bigger vehicles than are necessary, and feed their families with expensive, less nutritious prepared food, and take winter holidays with the assistance of a bank loan.

I don't believe that old saying about 'bring them up the way they should go and they won't depart from it'! 

Kaythecurler -- good for you, lots of great stuff happening for conservation in your household!

Re: my love affair with my Keurig, when I first got it I went a little crazy stocking up on different coffees I wanted to try.  Now down to 5:  2 favorite flavors (Timothy's cinnamon pastry and Green Mountain caramel vanilla), a french roast, a dark roast, and Cafe Escapes Chai latte (sometimes hard to find).  It's usually the french and dark roast cups I use twice so the coffee isn't too weak.

On cost, always on the lookout for deals at the many stores that now sell Kcups.  And deals can be found.  Including on Keurig.com  I figure I spend about $.50 a cup.  And to be a little clearer, I mentioned the permanent filter which is not exactly a "reuseable Kcup".  It's just like the permanent filter basket in other coffee makers that eliminates the need for paper filters.  Anyhoo, that's a saving grace because, of course, regular coffee is WAY less expensive than Kcups, just not as convenient.

Man, I think I going to go make a cuppa Chai!  cheers all

Jae, David's tea is a place that sells a bunch of varieties of loose leaf tea.

I have all kinds of tea, some from David's Tea, some from Steeps.  Some PC brand, Tetley, some stuff a friend picked up in Chinatown, etc.  I like most teas!

I was glad to put the soda info in front of my kids.  They think I'm a bit picky on such healthy things, but this sunk in a bit.  Phew!   Of course, I'm not force-feeding them coffee either.  They are more interested in tea so far.  We have a bit of juice sometimes for sweetness, and iced tea (which I pretend is healthier than Koolaid ;)  )  Lots of plain water.

I don't buy the K-cups either.  We have a small french press that does 3 mugs at a time so it works.  One pot in the morning, sometimes one later - that's it.  We buy fair trade coffee all the time, and often from fun coffee shops that roast their own.  It costs a bit more but we don't drink much so I love it.  And if we dont' use it all, it goes in a thermos carafe for later.  Works like a charm.

This morning I was invited to a neighbor's home for coffee.  She had received a Hamilton Beach 'Scoop" single serving maker for Christmas.  It was sitting on the kitchen counter when I arrived.

I asked if today's coffee  had been made in her shiny new coffee maker and she replied, emphatically, that it hadn't.  She explained that it was too fiddly, needed the filter cup cleaned every cup and made lousy coffee.

I've heard better reviews of the Keurig!

We were using a french press pot (no name version of a Bodum) until it broke recently (I dropped it in the sink, and smasholla!). I loved the coffee- it was quick and easy, no filters required. Now we are back to using our regular coffee maker. I don't like the coffee as much, but it'll do. Can't afford one of those Keurigs at the moment (there's a Tassimo at work- same thing I gather? It's pretty good, but I also wondered about all those little plastic cups- and do the Tassimo cups work in the Keurig and vice versa- or are they different sizes just so you have to stay brand exclusive?).

Hint: At home, just to make the coffee taste a little better, I sometimes put half a teaspoon or so of cinnamon in the grounds- right into the filter basket. Helps make it tastier if you can't afford to buy expensive flavoured coffee!

Sounds excellent kay. We compost food year round, and have a backyard composter that we use whenever we do yard work. We're not as good at using the cloth shopping bags as we could be. We pay the five-cents for the plastic bags at the store too often. My wife and I do 1/3 of our grocery shopping at Price Chopper, 1/3 at No Frills, and 1/3 at the local Korean market. Whenever we go to NFrills we put our bought edibles into a cardboard box that they provide, an then recycle the box.

A couple of questions about the bulk bin purchases -- one, the foods in such bins always seem risky to me. How can you be sure that they're safe, and by safe I mean not coughed in, not sneezed in, not handled by someone else. Two, when you buy such foods do you put them into the little plastic bags that the store provides or do you have a better system than that?

Something that I would love to do, but we don't have our own house yet to do it in, would be passive solar heating. Like you we have only one vehicle. Ours is reasonably light on gas -- a Hyundai Elantra. I hope that for our next car we will be able to purchase a hybrid. 

That's so sad to hear because really we all should be helping to take good care of the planet.

Rich blessings.

---

MC jae

Just the thought of morning coffee makes me smile!