In the English paper the Guardian there was an article about coffee that was relevant to The EA. Some excerpts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... erous-drug

... The Women's Petition Against Coffee of 1674 claimed all-male coffee houses were responsible for "a very sensible Decay of that Old English Vigour . . ." by promoting "the excessive use of that Newfangled, Abominable, Heathenish liquor called Coffee, which . . . has so Eunucht our Husbands and Crippled our more kind gallants they come from it with nothing moist but their snotty noses, nothing stiffe but their Joints . . .

... The Women's Petition Against Coffee prompted a broadside from men who argued that it "makes the erection more Vigorous, the Ejaculation more full, adds spiritualescency to the Sperme".

Medical types are still arguing over the effects of coffee.

Transward

It occurs to me that it is possible that both the men's & women's observations might have been accurate. The coffee houses of the 1600's evolved into the Gentlemen s clubs of Victorian times, which were notorious centers of upper class buggery. The all male coffee houses may well be the 17th century equivalent of our gay bathhouses.

Tranward

If coffee were an effective anti-androgen, I would think a majority of western civilization would be childless.

Losethem (imported) wrote: Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:13 pm If coffee were an effective anti-androgen, I would think a majority of western civilization would be childless.

Well, in the developed world, coffee consumption is rising, and fertility is dropping. So...

Transward

Coffee is a known anti-depressent. I'm not so sure about it being a an anti-androgen. Instead of paying a major pharmaceutical for drugs for your depression it'd be a lot better to treat coffee as a medication and have a cup or two in the morning or afternoon and limit yourself to just that and no more like you would a prescription. Coffee houses allow you to socialize which is also good for your mental well being.

Coffee is almost as good as chocolate.

In the long acting form, theophylline it is a good asthma medicine as is coffee itself. No longer profitable although a very good medicine.

As an anti androgen,

only because women substitute the chocolate form for men.

Moi