[brandong]

Classifying items into a straight Good/Bad category makes for good article baiting. (Coffee: Is it Bad for You?)

Coffee, like just about everything else on this planet, has good and bad characteristics. One will find that the negative effects of anything that impacts the body will occur at either extreme of the consumption range. (No consumption or Over-Consumption)

As with anything, moderation is the key to avoiding most side-effects. Granted, articles instructing you to moderate consumption are not nearly as provocative.

[ajross]

While that's all true, it misses the fact that people want rules. We're classifiers by nature: our brains want to sort things into "good" and "bad" regardless of what the truth is. The only solution here is to educate everyone about all the subtleties of the issue and force them into using more fine-grained categories.

Which, if you read it, is kinda what this article is trying (vainly, maybe) to do.