Well, here's news worth celebrating with a big glass of Irish coffee. The more coffee you drink, U.S. researchers announced last week, the less likely you are to suffer alcohol-related liver damage. In a world sloshing in bad news, the assertion had the effect of a morning-after double espresso on anxious imbibers everywhere. Roppongi, home to more bars and coffee joints per square meter than probably anyplace else in the world, should just change its slogan right now from High Touch Town to Happy Health Capital.
As for the Irish, they must be thrilled to know that one of their signature national beverages -- sweetened, whiskey-based coffee with cream -- is not only delectable, but an indulgence and its antidote all rolled into one. (As a marketing concept, it definitely outdoes the old boast that Irish coffee is the only beverage to contain all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, fat and sugar. That is just flippant.
For once, this was news with no downside. Drinking as little as one cup of coffee a day was associated with a 20 percent drop in the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis, according to the researchers in Oakland, Calif. who conducted the study. Better yet, they said, the protective effect was dose-dependent: Drinking four cups a day cut the risk 80 percent. (No word on whether five cups rendered people magically immune.) The doctors say they don't really know why, but drinkers worried about their livers doubtless don't care. They had just heard cardiologist Dr. Arthur L. Klatsky, the lead author of the study, say something very rare for a doctor: "Not everything enjoyable is bad for you."