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23 photos from the '30s and '40s that prove your grandparents were so much more badass than you.

It's not even a contest.

Your grandparents went hard.

A light day at work for your grandpa in Pittsburgh, 1938. Photo by Arthur Rothstein/Farm Security Administration.


And now, there's photographic evidence to prove it.

Yale University recently released 170,000 photos from the Great Depression and World War II-era America: some classic, some obscure, many taken by New Deal government photographers, and all of them proving what bad MF'ers your grandparents were.

From California, to the Bronx, to Alabama, the parents of your parents did nothing but demonstrate their strength, hard work, and good ol' fashioned American can-do know-how just-try-coming-at-me-and-you'll-see-what-happens, time and time again.

Here are 23 of those times.

1. Your grandma, doing her laundry by hand in a metal bucket on top of a rickety wooden barrel

Imperial Valley, CA, 1937. Photo by Dorothea Lange/Farm Security Administration.

Oh, it's so hard to schlep your clothes all the way down to the basement? Well, here's your grandma in Dust Bowl-era California washing your dirty socks by hand in the middle of the street.

So, you know. Keep complaining.

Most likely, your grandma stuck it out in the cabbage fields until the beginning of World War II, when she and your grandpa found better paying industrial work that allowed them to move to the big city. Though if she was one of the thousands of the mostly Latino and Asian migrant workers who stuck around, there's a good chance she was part of one of the biggest workers' rights victories of all time two decades later, when many of California's agriculture laborers successfully agitated for their rights to unionize behind Cesar Chavez and United Farm Workers.

Either way, total badass.

2. Your grandparents, dominating the dance floor so hard that everyone else just flat-out left

Birney, Montana, 1939. Photo by Arthur Rothstein/Farm Security Administration.

Little known fact: "The Club" was invented in Birney, Montana, in 1939, by your grandparents. There they are. Look at them go.

3. Your grandma, obviously knowing what's up

Imperial Valley, California, 1937. Photo by Dorothea Lange/Farm Security Administration.

That's her in the middle. Her parents left their home, most likely in Oklahoma — or Texas, or Arkansas, or Missouri — and dragged her halfway across the country so they could find work picking vegetables.

Her friend on the left is jazzed, but your grandma knows the deal. She knows this is going to be some John Steinbeck ish. She's not here for any B.S.

4. Your grandpa, cutting these logs in half all by himself with nothing but an old rusty handsaw

Bradford, Vermont, 1939. Photo by Russell Lee/Farm Security Administration.

How do you heat your home in winter when you live in rural Vermont and you've been waiting decades for the gas company to give you an activation date?

You burn wood. Lots of it.

Who volunteered to cut it? Your grandpa, that's who.

5. Your grandparents, working together to make humongous guns

Erie, Pennsylvania, 1941. Photo by Unknown/Office for Emergency Management.

Even though the United States didn't officially enter World War II until 1941, mobilization efforts began significantly ramping up the previous year.

The period between 1940 and 1945 saw a larger percentage increase of women in the labor force than at any other time in the 20th century, and right in the thick of it was your grandma, seen here in the top middle, making sure these giant guns were good 'n' killy.

6. Your grandpa, chilling on a stump

Iron, Michigan, 1937. Photo by Russell Lee/Farm Security Administration.

That beard. That is all.

7. Your grandma, straight-up carrying a chicken on her shoulder

Manning, South Carolina, 1939. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott/Farm Security Administration.

That's your grandma, one of a small number of black farmers who received a loan from the Farm Security Administration. Like many New Deal programs, white farmers fared far better under the FSA, which provided much-needed financial assistance to struggling farmers. Not coincidentally, the resulting poverty, along with the persistence of socially sanctioned terrorism, prompted many black families from places like Manning, South Carolina, to join the Great Migration to northern cities that began several decades earlier, and would last until around 1970.

In the meantime, your grandma is happy just casually hanging onto this chicken that could peck her eyes out at literally any moment.

8. Your grandpa, manually cranking up his jamz on a radio rigged to the top of his tractor

Jasper, Iowa, 1939. Photo by Arthur Rothstein/Farm Security Administration.

This is how your grandpa did work — driving that farm machine real slow, bumping "Nice Work if You Can Get It" all around that Iowa cornfield.

9. Your 6-year-old grandma, babysitting your baby great-uncle by herself

Hudson, Colorado, 1938. Photo by Jack Allison/Farm Security Administration.

Here's your grandma as a 6-year-old making sure her baby brother stays out of trouble. Her parents are hard at work at a nearby beet sugar farm in Hudson, Colorado, and she's on child care duty, despite being ... 6. Already more mature and responsible than you'll ever be.

10. Your grandma with the giant tree she just cut down while building a farm from scratch with her bare hands

Thurston, Washington, 1939. Photo by Dorothea Lange/Farm Security Administration.

There she is, clearing her own land in Thurston, Washington, leaning against the stump of a giant pine tree she probably just owned, looking suitably pleased with herself.

11. Your grandpa, rolling 200-pound barrels full of potatoes down the street

Presque Isle, Maine, 1940. Photo by Jack Delano/Farm Security Administration.

Or, as your grandpa called it, "the gym."

12. Your grandma, carrying heavy buckets full of water to thirsty farm workers

Belle Glade, Florida, 1937. Photo by Arthur Rothstein/Farm Security Administration.

Migrant worker camps sprouted up all over agricultural areas during the Great Depression — not just out west. Here's one in Belle Glade, Florida, and there's your grandma, being a goddamn hero, and getting swole in the process.

13. Your grandpa, single-handedly dragging a car across the river on some old wooden planks


Gees Bend, Alabama, 1939. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott/Farm Security Administration.

One morning in 1939, your grandpa was just hanging out, looking amazing in his hat somewhere in Gees Bend, Alabama, when a government agent and photographer rolled up and said, "Howdy, sir! You wouldn't mind taking our heavy-ass car across the river on your tiny ferry, would you?" And your grandpa was like, "Oh great. Sure. Yes. Love to. Totally..." while giving them the world's hardest side-eye.

But he did it. He freaking did it. All by himself.

14. Your grandma, churning butter with one hand basically tied behind her back like it's NBD

Gees Bend, Alabama, 1939. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott/Farm Security Administration.

The most ridiculous part? Your grandma was a lefty.

15. Your grandpa, having the time of his life literally playing in the gutter.

Bronx, 1936. Photo by Russell Lee/Farm Security Administration.

Every time you feel a secret twinge of shame scrolling through Twitter in front of your grandpa, this is why.

16. Your grandpa, looking stone-cold in the world's dopest shades

Ansonia, Connecticut, 1940. Photo by Jack Delano/Farm Security Administration.

As you sit at your desk, worried to the point of actual emotional distress that you might have to settle for the "bad" sandwich place for lunch today, here's a reminder that your grandpa worked in a factory in Ansonia, Connecticut, making metalworking equipment in 7-bazillion-degree heat, looking like the villain from a sci-fi horror film.

There he is holding onto some kind of rod, thinking a thought that will alter the universe as we know it.

17. Your grandpa ... actually, not sure about this one

Shelbyville, Kentucky, 1940. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott/Farm Security Administration.

Polishing the wheels of a go-kart? Checking the axles of a wheeled dogsled? I don't know. No idea what your grandpa is doing here. But whatever it is, it's obviously serious as all hell.

18. Your grandpa wrestling a cow, delighting the neighborhood children

Marshalltown, Iowa, 1939. Photo by Arthur Rothstein/Farm Security Administration.

These days, we try to amuse our kids by giving them free run of the iPad or plopping them in front of "Dolphin Tale 2" — yet somehow, they never seem satisfied. Your grandpa, on the other hand, understood that nothing entertains children more than watching man and beast locked in a physical struggle for supremacy.

The site of these events is now probably a Panera.

19. Your grandpa, watching the trains go by from on the actual train tracks

Minneapolis, 1939. Photo by John Vachon/Farm Security Administration.

Your grandpa laughs in the face of danger.

20. Your grandpa, taking a nap on top of some dead fish

Baltimore, 1938. Photo by Sheldon Dick/Farm Security Administration.

Oh, you stayed at the office 'til 9 p.m. last night putting together the pitch deck for the new clients?

Here's your grandpa sleeping on some fish barrels in Baltimore. By all means, feel sorry for yourself.

21. Your grandma, rocking out on a giant guitar

San Francisco, 1939. Photo by Dorothea Lange/Farm Security Administration.

Here she is in her Salvation Army bonnet, bringing much-needed relief to the poor and needy in San Francisco. Though the Salvation Army hasn't looked quite so good recently, leading up to — and during — the Depression, the organization was omnipresent, feeding and housing what is technically referred to on the American West Coast as "hella" people. The Salvation Army also tried extra hard to make them Methodist, which, depending on your perspective, was likely either miracle balm for their eternal souls or annoying as hell.

These boys are all like, "Yo! Play that Woody Guthrie, Miss!" But your grandma just frowns and keeps rolling with the church music. Eventually, they like it. They always do.

22. Your grandpa, tolerating a ridiculous amount of racism just to get a drink of water

Oklahoma City, 1939. Photo by Russell Lee/Farm Security Administration.

This is some B.S. your grandpa had to put up with on a daily basis.

Your daily reminder that racism ruins everything.

23. Your grandma, posing for the world's first viral interspecies friendship photo

Weslaco, Texas, 1939. Photo by Russell Lee/Farm Security Administration.

If this photo were taken today, it would launch a thousand Internet posts with titles like "This little girl and this calf are the best of friends and my heart just exploded." Some intrepid web reporters would somehow dig up a half-dozen more shots, and before too long, they'd have a book deal. As it is, we only have the one.

Let's just be glad we do.

Whether they're still alive or long passed on, your grandparents deserve our thanks, on behalf of America, for being the slam.

For more photos of your grandparents, check out the full archive here. You'll be glad you did.

And your grandparents will be like, "Told you so."

Parenting

Devastated dad shares why he didn't tell his 10-year-old daughter it was her birthday

“I don’t know if we made the right decision…It’s killing us.”

@kylephilippi/TikTok

“Today’s her birthday, and we’re pretending like it’s just another day."

Kid’s birthdays are both lovely moments of celebration, and potential sources of stress for any parent, for various reasons. For dad Kyle Philippi (whom we’ve previously covered for dressing up as Jafar to cure his friend of an irrational phobia), his daughter’s 10th birthday was particularly full of anguish—since he didn’t tell her it actually was her birthday.

In a video posted to his TikTok that amassed close to 3 million views, the concerned dad shared his unique plight that brought him to this unusual decision: his daughter’s birthday falls on Jan 2, over winter break, meaning most kids wouldn’t be able to attend her birthday party. Two years prior, the Philippi found this out the hard way, when they tried to throw a party on the day, and no one showed.

“She was devastated,” Philippi let out through a sigh.

Then last year, they tried a different approach. Instead of a big social gathering on Jan 2, they had a more intimate environment of just the family and one close friend, followed by a proper party once winter break was finished. At this point Philippi explained that his daughter is on the spectrum and had auditory processing disorder—so even though she had fun at both events, she still couldn’t understand why her friend couldn’t show up on her actual birthday, and was still disappointed. That’s never what any parent wants for their kid.

To make matters more sensitive, Philippi shared that his daughter was beginning to not be invited to other classmates' parties, and suspected that part of why she yearns to have a party with all her friends there was because “she knows she’s not getting to go to everyone else’s birthday.”

Hence why Philippi and his wife decided to try something new by simply not acknowledging the birthday until they can do a party with his daughter’s school friends. Understandably, though the choice was made with the best of intentions, when Jan 2 came, there were tons of conflicting feelings.

Photo credit: Canva

“I don’t know if we made the right decision. But here we are,” Philippi shared. “Today’s her birthday, and we’re pretending like it’s just another day…and it’s killing us.”

Down in the comments people—especially those with special needs kids, or were autistics themselves—were quick to reassure Philippi that he made a tough, but right call.

“As an autistic person who struggles with birthdays, you’re doing the right thing. it’s a little unconventional, but so are kids like us!! keep it up,” one person wrote.

Another added, “these ‘decisions’ are so hard but you are doing great by taking it all into consideration and trying to do what will help her feel great on her birthday.”

It seems the real thing worth noting here is that Philippi and his wife are trying to make their kid’s birthday the best it can be for her, and that’s truly admirable. Odds are nearly every parent can relate to this on some level. And for parents with neurodivergent kiddos, that can often mean navigating uncharted territory. Maybe they’ll try a different approach next year. Maybe not. What matters is they’re trying.

And from the looks of it, the actual birthday wasn’t a total wash. In a follow up video, we see that Philippi’s daughter got her favorite chicken wings for dinner, and got to plan her upcoming birthday…which will apparently be Raggedy Ann themed.

@kylephilippi Replying to @mamamcsorley1 She ate her favorite meal today and we continued to plan out her ultimate birthday party in 9 days 🙂 #birthday #parenting #parentingtips #autism #autismawareness #autismacceptance #auditoryprocessingdisorder #surprisebirthday #birthdayparty ♬ original sound - Kyle Philippi

Naturally, Philippi will be going as Raggedy Andy, per his daughter's request.

Internet

A 1965 invention for 'centrifugal birth' has been brought to life and it's terrifying

The invention would spin the mother around so fast that it would force the baby to be shot out into a net.

A 1965 child birth invention brought to life is terrifying

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to give birth while you're strapped inside an F-15 fighter jet doing a flat spin? Neither have most people who have given birth but that didn't stop someone from inventing something just as concerning. "The Blonsky Device," which should probably be named the baby catapult machine, was invented by George and Charlotte Blonsky in 1965.

The two were trying to find a way to help ease the process of birthing a child as the process looks incredibly painful and can take more than 24 hours at times. Their hearts were in the right place, though their idea probably should have stayed as pillow talk, alas, it did not. The couple scurried to the patent office to secure their invention before anyone else could come up with the same idea.

The Blonsky Device is certainly an interesting way to aid in helping a baby descend the birth canal. What makes the invention so peculiar? Well, doctors would need to manually strap a laboring mother to a metal table, securing her by her wrists, ankles and a heavy duty chest plate. The table then elevates and tilts before it begins to spin until it reaches 8 G-force, which is equivalent to what fighter jet pilots experience.

Flying Top Gun GIF by XboxGiphy

Yes, they planned to take a pregnant person and spin them to use centrifugal force to "aid" in childbirth. If you were worried about the baby, calm your fears. A net is placed just below the mom's feet to catch the newborn being delivered at 8 G-forces, and incase no one notices and infant being shot into the net, there's a bell that will ding to let doctors know the baby has arrived.

Aside from the obvious dangers of this invention, there are so many questions. Will the net be large enough to catch the baby? What happens if the mom has to vomit? Do they stop the table for cervical checks? Thankfully, for birthing people around the world, there has never been a reason to answer these questions because the invention never made it beyond the patent stage.


But the curiosity on how the contraption works and what it would look like has been answered by Science Gallery Dublin, who built a life-sized replica of the machine, and Hashem Al-Ghaili who generated a video of how it would work. Al-Ghaili's video has racked up 4.4 million views on TikTok with actual humans that have given birth weighing in with their thoughts on the device.

"Okay not only is that insane I don’t even wanna think of the fluids that’ll be sprayed 360°," one person says.

"Can you imagine the contraction pain and then the table is just spinning?! Bruh I’d be so mad," another laughs.

"I got overstimulated when the nurse kept rubbing my leg. I fear I'd crash out if I just started spinning out of nowhere," one woman writes.


"I felt like I was gonna throw up the whole time was in labor and I can’t imagine adding spinning to it. I would just be a mess," a different mom adds.

"Yes. Females all over the world have been birthing offspring for millions of years and a man somewhere went, 'I have a better way for women to give birth,'" someone else chimes in.

Many assumed that there was no woman involved in the invention of this hazardous contraption, but it was co-invented by Blonsky's wife, Charlotte. In their defense, they did not have children of their own and sexual education was limited in the 60s, so it's very likely they only had a general idea of how babies were born.

not ready baroness von sketch GIFGiphy

The idea came to them after they witnessed an elephant spin while giving birth. One would gather the elephant was not spinning at any level of G-force given the size and weight of the elephant, as well as...physics. This detail didn't stop the Blonskys from getting creative and thanks to their willingness to think outside the box–way outside the box, we can look back and have a giggle. No babies or birthing people were harmed.

Joy

17 Gen X memes for the generation caught in the middle

Gen X is so forgotten that it's become something of a meme. Here are 17 memes that will resonate with just about anyone born between 1965 and 1980.

Boomers, Millennials, and Gen Z

"Generation X" got its name in the early '90s from an article turned book by Canadian writer Douglas Coupland. And ever since, they've been fighting or embracing labels like "slacker" and "cynic." That is, until Millennials came of age and all that "you kids today" energy from older generations started to get heaped on them. Slowly, Gen X found they were no longer being called slackers...they weren't even being mentioned at all. And that suits them just fine.

Here are 17 memes that will resonate with just about anyone born between 1965 and 1980.

Gen X basically invented "Whatever."

gen x memesSOURCE: TWITTER

Until recently, Generation X has been sitting back and watching as Millennials and Boomers eat at each other with an amused, non-confrontational attitude. But recently, Millennials and Gen Z became aware of their presence, and dubbed them "The Karen Generation."

They seem to be embracing the Karen thing.

SOURCE: X

While I'm pretty sure the "Karen" thing is not complimentary—as BuzzFeed puts it, it's meant to communicate someone who is "the middle-aged white mom who is always asking for the manager and wondering why kids are so obsessed with their identities,"—lots of people landed on a different Karen to represent the generation: the martini-guzzling, wise-cracking Karen Walker.

Get it right!

SOURCE: X

Well [expletive] me gently with a chainsaw, she's right. The 1980s cult classic starring Winona Ryder and Shannen Doherty really is the Mean Girls of the '80s and a much better term than Karen.

The disdain is mutual...

The Breakfast Club

SOURCE: X

Most of my Gen X friends have Gen Z kids and they are intergenerationally very chill with each other. However, Gen X is the generation most likely to have Boomer parents and younger millennial kids, and this meme seems to be resonating a bunch with Xers of a certain age.

A lot of Xers are enjoying the "OK boomer" squabble.

SOURCE: X

The media tends to ignore Generation X as a whole—as a few tweets coming up demonstrate—and that's nothing new. After all, they're used to it. They were latchkey kids whose parents both worked long hours, so they're used to being somewhat neglected.

"No one cares what we think anyway..."

via GIPHY

This GIF of Janeane Garofolo mocking her classmates at the high school reunion is basically a whole Gen X mood and definitely captures how a lot of this generation caught in the middle feels about the "OK boomer" wars.

A whole mood.

SOURCE: X

Gen X: "Look, don't pull us into this. You'll make me spill my beer."

Gen X: Get used to it.

SOURCE: X

Perhaps Gen X's blasé attitude to the generation wars has something to do with being called "Slackers" for a full decade.

Pass the popcorn.

SOURCE: X

Aside from this whole "Karen generation" blip, Gen X continues to be largely overlooked, and that fact—as well as their silent delight in it—is possibly one of the most Generation X things to happen.

Pay no attention to the man behind the venetian blinds.

SOURCE: X

Back in the '90s, Gen X bore the same kind of criticism Boomers tend to heap on Millennials and Gen Z now. It's not necessarily that they want to watch a cage match. It's just they're so relieved the heat is aimed elsewhere.

See?

SOURCE: TWITTER

Although this chart doesn't list the generation names, the approximate age ranges are all there...except for a big gap between the ages of 35 and 54 where apparently no humans were born? Poor Gen X (and some elder Millennials) apparently don't have political beliefs worth examining.

Don't you forget about me...

SOURCE: X

If Millennials are the "burnout generation," I guess Gen X is truly the invisible generation. I'm starting to feel inspired to write a science fiction novel where everyone born from 1965 to 1980 inhabits a totally different dimension.

There are perks to being invisible...

SOURCE: X

Being overlooked can be an advantage when you just want to sit in the corner and be immature.

Party on.

SOURCE: X

Before Brené Brown was telling us all how to dare greatly, Gen X got their inspirational advice from a different kind of Ted and his pal Bill, who taught us all how important it is to learn from history and be excellent to each other.

Too late and yet too early.

SOURCE: X

Romance—or getting lucky—was never easy for Generation X. They were the generation most impacted by the AIDS epidemic when it comes to anxiety about casual sex. Whereas Boomers had the free love of the late '60s, Gen X was about safe sex, which usually meant less sex. And even when having safe casual sex, singles in the '90s had to meet people the old-fashioned way or, if they did meet online, they felt shame over it. Now online dating is the norm.

When Gen X replaces the Boomers.

SOURCE: X

This is probably an optimistic view—because the truth is there are "Boomers" in every generation, and many of them tend to find their way into powerful positions. Let's call this a best case scenario, though.

The Nihilism Generation

SOURCE: X

There is no generation more over it than Gen X. They are ready for the apocalypse, but don't expect them to, like, help or anything!

Now we have Generation Alpha to contend with, so let's hope they're more chill about the generation wars than their predecessors. And as of 2025, an even newer generation is starting: Generation Beta. Hopefully, the fighting will have died down.


This article originally appeared five years ago.

@newenglandrunnr/TikTok

If you don't deal with anxiety, this tip might not be for you.

TikTok has been a gold mine for finding lesser known, but highly effective parenting tips, especially when it comes to dealing with tantrums. While we still have the app, let’s offer one more! Coming from a mom who goes by @newenglandrunnr, this tantrum tip is certainly unique, but makes so much sense.

Her advice, which was also something she found on TikTok, is for parents to treat a kid's meltdown “like anxiety attacks” within themselves. For her, that means whenever her son is having a tough time, she gives him an ice cube and lets him throw it in the bathtub.

“Instantly calms him down,” she said. “He instantly wants to do it because he’s able to throw something, and then the cold from the ice cube tricks the nervous system into calming down because it distracts it. [It is] the best calming technique that I’ve ever found. So if you’re looking for a way to calm kids’ meltdowns, just treat it like how you would anxiety for yourself.”

This is apparently a physical self-soothing technique that works during her own anxiety attacks, and it’s this aspect of “treating the body’s response” that works on the all-circuits firing, emotional overwhelm feeling that both anxiety and tantrums can elicit. After that is regulated, then parents can talk about why that behavior “is not acceptable,” she also noted.


@newenglandrunnr Also works at daycare because they just have him splash cold water on himself 👍🏻
♬ original sound - newenglandrunnr

While the specific ice-cube trick is super nifty, just the general concept of using anxiety reducing tactics for tantrums is genius in and of itself. Lots of fellow parents commended the idea in the comments

“It’s all about co-regulation at this stage!” one person wrote. “They are experiencing life for the first time. Regulate with them and they’ll learn skills for life.”

“It’s also teaching a healthy outlet for anger/frustration/anxiety so he doesn’t let it bottle up,” added another.

Many even shared their own similar strategies.

“My 3 year old and I have started using something similar to the Bluey episode where they gather all their angry and upset then throw it far away,” wrote one person. “It makes him laugh when I do it and then he forgets he was mad.”

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Another added, “My favorite for my oldest is to enter a complain-off and we take turns venting about all the things we’re mad about. She needs to see that I understand emotionally what she's going through.”

“My favorite tantrum advice was to say something wrong because they’ll want to correct you,” was a third option, while a fourth said, “I had a breakthrough with a kid who was known for historic tantrums when I asked her ‘do you know how to/need help calming down’ instead of just telling her ‘calm down.’”

Hopefully this bit of advice can not only help stop tantrums in their tracks, but also help parents stay sane while in the throes of them. The next time logic has flown the coop and only screams of rage remain, maybe try throwing logic out the window and opt for something else instead.

Unsweetened coffee could reduce your risk of dementia.

Reach for that second cup. Recent research from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that older folks that drink a higher intake of unsweetened black coffee reduce their risk of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other forms of dementia.

The author of the study, Tingjing Zhang, wanted to see if there were any associations or correlations between neurodegenerative diseases and coffee consumption. Zhang’s team of researchers studied data acquired from UK Biobank, a giant database of biomedical information from individuals living in the United Kingdom. The group looked at the health, genetics, and lifestyle of 204,847 individuals aged 40 to 69, analyzing their food and beverage intake within a 24-hour period five different times during a calendar year.

Those who consumed at least one coffee beverage were considered coffee drinkers, and out of those coffee drinkers they were further classified as consumers of unsweetened coffee, consumers of sugar-sweetened coffee, and consumers of artificially sweetened coffee if they consistently had their coffee solely in one of those classifications. This was to see if there was any variation of health data within those sub-groups, too.

The results showed that those that drank unsweetened coffee had 29% to 30% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and related dementia, along with a 43% lower risk of dying from those conditions compared to the non-coffee drinkers in the study. Those who drank unsweetened decaf had a 34% to 37% percent chance of lowering their risk of those afflictions along with a 47% lower risk of related mortality compared to non-coffee drinkers. Unfortunately for coffee drinkers that needed sugar or artificial sweeteners, there didn’t appear to be any reduced risk of those diseases or mortality regarding them.

While this appears to be great news for those who drink black coffee, it shouldn’t be taken as hard evidence of correlation, at least not until further studies confirm it. But coffee can be healthy for people aside from just these potential physical health benefits.


Three people drinking coffee and laughingCoffee is a good excuse for any social interaction.Photo credit: Canva

Coffee is good for our social health. According to Dr. Kirtly Parker Jones of the University of Utah, coffee is a social catalyst that brings us together in so many different environments and contexts. It’s a great way for coworkers to take a break together, or conversely a friendly method for bosses and employees to discuss issues with both guards down. Meeting up at a coffee shop is a great first date, catch-up with a friend, or introduction to a potential new business partner. Blue collar, white collar, any collar color tends to have coffee involved in their work life.

Coffee is good for our heart, too. Not just cardiovascularly, but spiritually. Humans are ritualistic and one ritual for many is the first cup of coffee of the day. It’s usually a quiet moment to reflect and get your mind ready with that first sip. It’s the pause before the action, or for some the ritual includes grinding the coffee beans and making the coffee themselves with a French press.

A woman sipping coffee alone.Sipping coffee on your own counts as a reflective morning ritual.Photo credit: Canva

Further studies might disprove the data found regarding Alzheimer's or Parkinson’s disease, but even if that gets outright debunked, there are other reasons why coffee can be good for you. So unless your doctor tells you otherwise, have a cup of coffee with some friends, coworkers, or just by yourself. Just be careful about how much cream and sugar you add.

Hands hold coffee mugs, cheeringCoffee brings us together.Photo credit: Canva