Good news to everyone out there who savors coffee (or pretty much whatever caffeinated brew you happen to ingest on a regular basis), caffeine may be more beneficial to your long-term health than you think.

We love you too Mr. Coffee.

According to this article from io9.com, caffeine reduces the ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related enzyme (more easily referred to as ATR) in your body.  By removing ATR, cells that are DNA-damaged are more likely to die off.

What does this mean in the end?  By decreasing the amount of ATR in your body, cells that normally form tumors/cancer die off before they can become an issue.  In the io9 article, this technique has been tried on mice with promising results.

So take this with a grain of salt.  ATR may still be vital to your body’s functions; all that is being proven is that less of it is better.  The sources io9 cited “Coffee drinking, mortality, and cancer incidence: results from a Norwegian prospective study” as one of their sources as well as io9′s articles on coffee helping with breast, prostate, and skin cancer.

Remember everyone, too much of a good thing is bad… but I guess that won’t stop some of you caffeine addicts from buying the “Shower Shock Caffeine Body Wash” over at Thinkgeek…

No, wait-!

Technically yes and no.  In today’s mid-week dive into what’s new in the food world,  I came across an article shared by Zagat.com called “Ten Dishes Not to Order on a First Date”.  This useful list came from another food blog called “SFoodie Weekly” and written by Olivia Ware (Editor’s note:  Her name is Olivia Ware, not Olivia Wilde).  Her breakdown on “do nots” is as follows:

DO NOT ORDER:

1. Meal salad:  Easy enough, your whole meal should not be the salad.  It’s like going to McDonalds and asking them to just sell you only the lettuce and tomatoes that goes on the Big Mac.
2. The Burrito:  This should be a given, considering that burritos have gotten people in trouble in the past and caused an entire middle school to be locked down while being searched by police.
3. The Mile Long Noodle:  Ever feel silly when you are eating pasta and no matter how high you raise your arm there is a never ending line of noodle going back into your plate?  Now officially more than just silly.
4. The Tiny Game Bird:  Simply put, picking up meat by the bone and eating it caveman style is not a good first impression.
5. The Kid’s Meal:  There’s short list in this one but bottom line is if your choices looks like a nostalgia meal from Chucky Cheese’s then it’s a no-no.
6. The Vodka Red Bull:  Now, SFoodie recommends you stick to beer, the cocktail menu, or wine.  Keep your ‘teenage drinks’ for later.  Our opinion?  It depends on the date.  You may need that extra caffeine boost. ::nudge::
7. The Non-desert:  Do your research; if your date likes sweet stuff then treat them to sweet stuff.  Cheese has consequences and if you are a Vodka Red Bull type of person then the after-dinner wine is just redundant.
8. The Tooth Magnets:  THESE ARE THE ENEMIES THAT WILL DESTROY YOUR DATING EXPERIENCE.  This entry covers everything that hides like insurgents between your teeth, lying in wait to just blow your chances in getting a good night kiss.  Examples include spinach and corn on the cob.
9. The Whole Shellfish:  Just like the Tiny Game Bird entry above, demolishing an armored crustacean (Editor’s Note: ‘enemy crab’ joke removed) may be a great stress reliever but is bad for first impressions.  Moral of the story is to hide your savage tendencies for later.  Much later.
10. The Raw Allium:  While it seems pretty obvious that eating a whole raw onion and expecting some deep frenching afterwards is about as ridiculous as wrestling a porcupine, you need to keep an eye out for dishes that serve alot of raw spices.

So, thank you Olivia Ware for your helpful hints and suggestions.  To read more about the “Ten Dishes Not to Order on a First Date” and to see what is recommended instead, check out the Zagat.com shared link here or just bounce straight to the article here.