The Bloom — healthy eating

Our quest for health takes us many places. To our yoga mats and our bicycle seats. To the hiking trail and the fitness center, a bowl of fruit or a lunchtime salad. Yet if we really want to boost our bodies, we should head for the nearest café and order a large latte. Not to say those other things don’t matter. They do. But when it comes to self-care, the latest scientific surprise is deliciously simple: drink coffee. Researchers who’ve picked our favorite drink apart say it’s loaded with all kinds of good things our bodies need to maintain optimal...

  From the recent news that coffee appears to lower the risk of liver cancer to evidence that it may protect the heart, lower inflammation, and even prevent diabetes, the drink of drinks is becoming a bona fide health food, one that’s beneficial to our bodies in all kinds of ways that matter. That’s great news for us coffee fanatics—frankly, we’d have been happy just to find out that all those beans we’ve been brewing don’t come with any serious side effects. But discovering that coffee is actually good for us? That’s icing on the coffee cake. And it’s a...

When it comes to healthy eating, kale gets all the press. But if the scientific buzz is right, there’s a whole lot of wellness waiting in our coffee cups, too, and while that sweet essence of sacred bean may not have the cachet of cruciferous vegetables, it still packs a serious jolt. And we’re not just talking caffeine blast either. Here are a few recent headlines that put coffee above the nutritional fold: Coffee fights cancer. It’s packed with antioxidants called polyphenols, and consumption has been linked to less prostate, breast, colorectal, and liver cancer. Coffee does waistlines right. Those...

We don’t get much in the way of fall where I hang my own board, which is okay because it means we also don’t get much in the way of winter. But I still envy the cozy vibe that crisp days and chilly nights bring in other places. So I make soup. No, I don’t have a fire to curl up with while I sip it, but the comfort of a steaming bowl on what passes for a chilly evening in these parts is a rite of seasonal passage that, for me anyway, offers a taste of a different place...