Leanne, caffeinated and calm

Time yet for a hundred indecisions

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@mumbaiheritage Thanks for the acknowledgement of this Bandra tradition, but the fair always begins on the Sunday following September 8th so not today

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@gauravsabnis What’s with the casual clothing choice? This attempt to shift brand Modi towards casual and cool is backfiring so badly!

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@Rhiyahir Young lady, you ARE the anti-Arnab jab this country needs! More power to you

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@MysticHeretica our interactions on here were brief and a not exactly in the recent past but you struck me as an intelligent young woman with so much integrity and with wisdom beyond your years. This news of your passing is truly sad. Rest in eternal peace

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@gauravsabnis And Kalina was one of the hardest hit areas!

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@catale7a Mumbai first. And then some (not all) cities south of Mumbai

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@amitsurg @pasreech No sir it’s not. But thinking you know more than your children is. The more I learn the more I realise there’s so much more to learn

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@amitsurg @pasreech As a compulsive reader and information junkie myself, believing I know more than other people is just arrogance. There’s always something new to learn. Maybe all we have to learn from the youth is new perspectives and a refusal to maintain the status quo

[Tony Joseph @tjoseph0010]

Rarely has such a young generation under so much pressure carried such a huge task so lightly and so successfully with so much warmth, wit and wisdom. They found and lit a path forward that had remained hidden so far. That they remained remarkably free of the poison flowing all around them, at home and outside, in the last decade or two is a miracle in itself. May their future be as bright as they are!

[Neeraj Ghaywan @ghaywan]

Courage:

The half-submerged tribal women of MP who lay on pyres and stood beneath nooses,
just to save their rivers, their forests, and their land.

The thousands who marched yesterday in Delhi, asking for accountability.

The girl from Bihar who boarded a crowded general-compartment of a train with 20 rupees in her pocket because she thought showing up matters.

The journalist who ran, coughed, wiped the tear gas off her eyes, and kept reporting.

The young girl, under a rain of batons, asked the police, "Am I not like your child?”

The labourer who sat in solidarity, very aware of the day’s wages he is going to lose.

The young doctors who dressed wounds while being beaten up themselves.

The rickshaw driver who ferried students to the protest for free.

The blind man who couldn’t see the crowd but handed water bottles to everyone.

The strangers who anonymously sent food and the volunteers who served.

The boy from MP, who brought peanuts and an onion in a tiffin box
to a protest that met with batons and tear gas.

The brave student who after being struck on the shin with a baton, asked for another blow.

Those who stood, when standing came at a price.

When overcome by fear, courage was the only option.

History will remember those who looked at a nailed baton in the eye and did not flinch.

Te remind us that our nation was, is and will forever be, of the people.

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@gauravsabnis Why egg bhurji? Because of the tomatoes?
Also, I once had a grown man go from angry to tearful in about 10 minutes because I told him (nice polite dinner party conversation) that mirchi was not originally Indian.

[Ujval Nanavati @ujval_nanavati]

How many people living in the maximum city even know that Dahisar, Poisor, and Oshiwara are names of rivers?

Excellent piece from Genesia Alves, ancestral village: Mumbai.

[Tomas Pueyo @tomaspueyo]

Why is this corridor in northern India so flat, while the adjacent Himalayas are so rugged?
Where else can we see this?

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@gauravsabnis Great thread about 2 cities I absolutely love!

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Coffee is one of the only drinks with strong evidence that benefits the liver. Here's what decades of research actually says about how to drink it right:

Coffee genuinely lowers liver disease risk.
Meta-analyses show regular drinkers have about 35% lower risk of significant liver fibrosis and nearly 50% lower risk of liver cancer compared with non-drinkers.

Aim for 2–3 cups a day, minimum.
The effect is dose-dependent. The Hepatology socities such as AASLD and EASL says 3 or more cups daily is reasonable for liver benefit, if you tolerate it.

Caffeinated works better than decaf.
But decaf still helps.
Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors that drive liver scarring. Decaf lowers chronic liver disease risk too, just by a smaller margin (UK Biobank, n=494,585).

The target dose: ~300 mg caffeine/day, or 3 cups.
Fibrosis protection kicks in around the 75th percentile of intake, roughly 308 mg caffeine, or 2.25 cup equivalents, per day - the AASLD 2023 advises 3+ cups for liver benefit.

What a "cup" actually means
One standard cup = 240 ml (8 oz), not a 60 ml tiny Indian "cup." A 240 ml filter coffee has ~95–165 mg caffeine. A single espresso shot (30 ml) has only ~60–75 mg.

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15 to 1:17.
For filter/drip/pour-over: 15 g of ground coffee to 250 ml water. This is the standard brewing ratio and gives clean extraction of chlorogenic acids and caffeine.

Choose medium roast, not dark.
Medium roast has significantly higher chlorogenic acid (CGAs) content than dark roast. Dark roasting thermally degrades CGAs, the main antioxidant doing liver work.

Arabica beats Robusta.
Arabica beans are richer in CGAs and polyphenols, the antioxidants doing most of the liver-protective work.

A note here:
Arabica for polyphenols, Robusta for caffeine.
Arabica (1.5% caffeine) has more CGAs and polyphenols. Robusta (2.7% caffeine) has more caffeine but a cruder phenolic profile. A 70:30 Arabica-Robusta blend is a reasonable compromise.

Water temperature: 92–96°C.
Just off a rolling boil. Too hot (>96°C) burns the grounds and extracts bitter compounds; too cool (<90°C) under-extracts CGAs and caffeine.

Grind size matters.
Medium grind (table-salt texture) for filter/drip. Coarse for French press. Fine for espresso. Brew time: 3–4 minutes for pour-over, 4 minutes for French press, 25–30 seconds for espresso.

Filtered coffee is the safest daily choice.
Paper filters trap cafestol and kahweol, naturally present plant diterpenes that raise LDL cholesterol if consumed daily in large amounts. Pour-over (V60, Kalita, Melitta) or drip machines with paper filters give you CGAs and caffeine without the cholesterol penalty.

Espresso and French press: fine, but not unlimited.
They retain more polyphenols but also more diterpenes (so more chances of increased lipids). Great occasionally; don't make them your 5-cups-a-day default if you have high cholesterol or heart disease.

South Indian filter coffee: acceptable, with caveats. The metal filter does not remove diterpenes as well as paper, so limit to 1–2 cups/day if you have dyslipidemia. The decoction itself is rich in CGAs. Use less sugar. Skip condensed milk.

BUT ULTIMATE: Drink it black. Or close to it.
Sugar, syrups, flavored creamers and whipped cream cancel the liver benefit, especially if you already have fatty liver, diabetes, or obesity. Skim milk or unsweetened plant milk is fine.

Instant coffee: still works.
UK Biobank (n=494,585) showed instant coffee drinkers had similar reductions in chronic liver disease as ground coffee drinkers. Not as potent, but far better than no coffee.

Cold brew: underrated for the liver.
Medium roast + coarse grind + 6–7 hours at room temperature extracts CGAs and caffeine efficiently with lower bitterness. pH and CGA content are comparable to hot brew.

Timing.
Spread across the day. one at breakfast, one mid-morning, one early afternoon. Stop by 2 pm if you have insomnia.

It helps across almost every major liver disease.
Evidence supports benefit in fatty liver (MASLD), alcohol-related liver disease, hepatitis B and C, cirrhosis, and liver cancer.

The mechanism isn't magic, it's chemistry.
Chlorogenic acid cuts oxidative stress and liver fat. Caffeine inhibits stellate cell activation (that promotes scarring or fibrosis). Melanoidins and polyphenols reduce inflammation.

Who should go easy.
Pregnancy, children, those with uncontrolled heart rate and rhythmn issues (arrhythmias), panic disorder, or insomnia.

And no, coffee does not undo a bad diet or bad choice - such as alcohol, herbal supplement or that Ayurvedic "liver tonic."

Sources: Modi et al., Hepatology 2010; Kennedy et al., BMC Public Health 2021 (UK Biobank); Fuller & Rao, Sci Rep 2017; AASLD MASLD Clinical Care Pathway 2023; EASL 2016 CPG, Frontiers in Nutrition 2026 (Italian coffee cohort).

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@gauravsabnis Why no option for all of the above?

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@MrNarci Thank you! This is very cool info

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@Oman_al70b @badralbusaidi Thank you! I managed to leave the UAE and return to India via Oman. Your country is beautiful and your people were so welcoming. Restored my faith in humanity amidst all this craziness

[Leanne, caffeinated and calm @leannemanchanda]

@badralbusaidi @soupsranjan Thank you Oman! I returned to India yesterday after getting a flight out of Fujairah into Muscat and then home to Mumbai on Salam Air.
Flying in directly and transiting though the country is an option for those who are worried about visas (like most Indian passport holders)