L. A. S by L. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Assn. · Washington, D.C. · Dec 31, 1903

L. A. S

By L. A. S.

Under the heading “Tea and Coffee Drunkenness” a Washington paper quotes from American Medicine the following statement of facts concerning the consumption of tea and coffee in this country, showing the enormous waste of money by both rich and poor on these useless and harmful articles, and suggesting a direct connection between their use and indulgence in stronger drinks:—

In the annual report of the Children’s Aid Society of New York is published a tabulated list of the conditions of families whose children attend the industrial schools in that city. The number of families whose condition was investigated was 3,453, and the family income of 561 was less than four dollars a week; of 1,263, from four to seven dollars; of 1,629, from seven to ten dollars. In all, the breakfast was bread and coffee only; the supper, bread and tea, with some cheese, macaroni, or fruit. Thus with all the terrible poverty, the article of diet that does not fail twice a day is the coffee or tea. Probably also in the dinner list of many these drinks were included. Surely from the working-man’s dinner bucket the pint or more of coffee is never omitted. But the point needing emphasis is that in the report referred to, it is children who from earliest years are drinking tea and coffee. What proportion of the income of these poor families thus goes to the purchase of these drinks is a highly important concern, but is not directly medical. Whatever one may think as to the physiologic action of caffein, it is agreed that it is not “a food,” and that the amount of money thus wasted by the poor could and should be spent in buying real health-bringing and strength-giving foods. This economic aspect of the question also becomes doubly important both as a medical and financial matter when one finds these articles on the dietaries of all our public institutions. Should so much of the public money be spent on articles of drink, non-foods? And the custom has many bearings on health. The more coffee and tea drunk, the more tobacco used. The national consumption of coffee and tea, moreover, rises almost accurately pari passu with the amount of alcohol used. Is it not true, as a rule, that intemperance in the one co-exists with intemperance in the other? Is not the temperance problem closely bound up with this use of coffee, tea, and alcohol? If so, and even if not so, coffee and tea are unnecessary and peculiarly harmful to children.