Wake Up Louisiana, This Coffee Drink Could Be Banned

On a typical morning in any household in Louisiana, you are likely to hear the sound of bacon frying and coffee dripping. Or maybe that coffee is percolating. Or maybe the coffee is on the stove in a pot and when it's poured out it's going to be thick as bayou mud. That's a long way to say we love our coffee in Louisiana.

This is why there is such a strong concern among Louisiana's "coffee achievers", do you remember that commercial? Anyway, this isn't about a 1980s-era push to buy more coffee, it's about a proposed ban by the Food and Drug Administration which would greatly curtail our ability to consume coffee.

Okay, if the Coffee Achievers commercial didn't make you want to never touch another cup of coffee again, then perhaps a cup of this witch's brew just might. I am speaking of decaffeinated coffee. Like non-alcoholic beer it's a beverage for people who just enjoy urinating frequently, I guess.

Coffee purists don't care for decaf and now the Food and Drug Administration is considering joining that bandwagon too. But the FDA wants decaf gone for a totally different reason. The FDA says the process of taking the caffeine out of coffee leaves behind traces of some dangerous chemicals.

There is Paint Thinner in Your Coffee and You Didn't Know It

As of now, FDA standards allow for trace amounts of such flavor enhancers as Methylene Chloride. And no, it's not the safest of ingredients but it's what they use to take the "wakey wakey" out of your morning cup of Joe. When methylene chloride isn't stripping the caffeine from your coffee it can be found stripping paint, cleaning metal, and degreasing glass. Yummy.

I can see why they'd like to see even trace amounts of that chemical removed from your morning cup of coffee. The FDA has filed a petition that has made the request that Methylene Chloride and a host of other food additive chemicals be disallowed from our diets.

Does This Mean The End for Decaf?

No, there are natural ways to decaffeinate coffee but they are more expensive. However, if you want, you can pay a little more and get a decaf coffee that you can feel good about drinking. If that's even possible. If you visit the Clean Label project online you can get a list of those products and others that don't use harmful chemicals and still provide a delicious product.