Apparently Surviving on Coffee Isn't So Bad

So, my (almost) 14-month-old son just learned how to open doors and our baby gate. He now has access to knives, chemicals, kitty litter and the trash can. And then he discovered he could drag the kitchen chairs over to the counter for even more access to all sorts of wonderful things. Oh, goody!

As I'm sure you can imagine, I've been running myself ragged chasing him around the house to keep him from killing himself - so I have had no time to eat, sleep, or shower. I've been surviving on coffee, crackers and string cheese for two days. Lucky for me, I found this article on MSN Health & Fitness that has made me feel slightly better about my sudden coffee dependency.

Apparently, the Autonoma University in Madrid, Spain did a study with 42,000 men and 84,000 women on the relationships between coffee consumption and dying from heart disease or cancer. Surprisingly (at least, to me) they found that women who drink between 2 and 3 cups daily of either regular or decaffeinated coffee had a 25 percent lower risk of death from heart disease, and an 18 percent lower death risk from a cause other than cancer or heart disease compared with non-coffee drinkers. For men, the 2-3 cups a day showed no difference in health risks. Bummer for the guys. But seriously, C'mon all my sleep-deprived mommies out there, how awesome is that?

It also said that their research showed that up to SIX cups a day showed nothing but positive effects on your health. Which is cool, because I had 5 cups already today. Now I just need to find a study on the positive effects of surviving on crackers and string cheese and I'll be good. Maybe between the caffeine, malnutrition and chasing my kid around I can at least lose a couple pounds, right? That just might make it all worth it...