Should Starbucks Promote Health Benefits of Coffee?

Starbucks currently touts the quality of its food and coffee, the range of selection of food, free Wi-Fi, Starbucks rewards programs, its fair treatment of suppliers, its merchandise, the benefits its offers employees and the convenience of its ready-made coffee. Its stores are not always clean, people occasionally have to stand in line and consumers cannot tip Starbucks employees when those customers use credit cards. Those drawbacks are modest compared to the longer list of favorable reasons to visit its stores.

Starbucks is one of the few fast-food chains that can claim much of what its sells has healthy benefits. Subway has used “healthy” for years as among its most important advantages. It has used healthy food as a benefit for so long that it must work. Obviously, McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) and other burger, chicken and pizza chains cannot offer a similar measure for marketing. Fatty food with high calories is already part of the attack on consumption of burgers and sugary drinks.

Coffee has benefits for lowering depression in older adults, according to the American Academy of Neurology. Research from the Harvard School of Public Health shows coffee lowers the risk of suicide. Maybe the mental health numbers are about subjects that are too grim.

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On a more upbeat note, the Mayo Clinic recently completed an analysis that shows:

Studies have shown that coffee may have health benefits, including protecting against Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes and liver disease, including liver cancer. It also appears to improve cognitive function and decrease the risk of depression.

Unfortunately, that is not all the analysis demonstrated:

However, the research appears to bear out some risks. High consumption of unfiltered coffee (boiled or espresso) has been associated with mild elevations in cholesterol levels. And some studies found that two or more cups of coffee a day can increase the risk of heart disease in people with a specific — and fairly common — genetic mutation that slows the breakdown of caffeine in the body. So, how quickly you metabolize coffee may affect your health risk.

So much for health benefits, at least as a way to get people to visit Starbucks. The company will have to come up with something else.

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