Will coffee eventually land on the same chopping block as tobacco and fast food? If you ask Marina Kushner, it already has.

The Russian immigrant, who resides in New York City, has outlined a plethora of evils about coffee that she hopes will fully grab the attention of the Food and Drug Administration, and more so, the 50 percent of Americans who slug down at least three cups of Joe a day.

In her soon-to-be-released book, Life Without Caffeine: How Eliminating Caffeine Can Save Your Life, the author presents a litany of reasons to stop drinking coffee based on three years of research and troubling health problems she experienced as a coffee addict. Caffeine, she says, is only part of the problem.

“Coffee beans contain acetone, a natural harsh substance that is used in nail polish remover. Acetone can cause stomach and pancreatic cancer,” she warns. “And the oils in the beans carry a significant amount of tannic acids, which irritate the stomach.”

In her coffee-drinking days while working for a newspaper in Moscow, Kushner became plagued by mood swings, insomnia, irritability and facial blemishes due to what she calls “the coffee drug.” All of the symptoms, she claims, disappeared after pushing aside the percolator.

“I was living in a continued nightmare,” she recalls. “And I was desperate to find a substitute.”

Kushner discovered an alternative by roasting soybeans at home, which yielded the same dark color and rich flavor as real coffee. After emigrating to the U.S., she began working with a company to perfect the roasting process and thus founded Soy Coffee, LLC. The product, called Soyfee, is now produced in nine flavors and contains all of the health benefits one would associate with soy. “The grounds taste just like coffee once they go through the roasting and brewing process – especially when put through a French press,” she adds.

Kushner is currently peddling the product to health stores and gourmet shops around the country, as well as through her website (link to it via this article at www.gaylesbiantimes.com), although she says that Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods may start carrying it in 2005.

As the founder of National Caffeine Awareness Month (recognized in March), Kushner’s primary mission is to shed light on “the global health threat” caused by coffee and caffeine consumption – a mantra reflected in both her book and another website she established (also available by linking to this article online).

Pharmacologists and many physicians, she notes, consider a daily intake of 250 milligrams of caffeine as excessive. Safe standards, she admits, are difficult to determine, although they are “very easy to exceed.”

A 12-ounce cup of regular Starbucks coffee, for example, contains 375 milligrams of caffeine. Add another 250 milligrams from a can of Diet Coke in the same day, and the stage is set for bloating, internal inflammations, headaches, crabbiness and other health complications that Kushner believes will occur once that type of consumption becomes routine.

Women and children, she emphasizes, are particularly at risk to the insidious effects of caffeine. Also, many consumers remain unaware of the moderate caffeine levels lurking within over-the-counter medicines, ice cream, frozen foods and baked goods.

“Caffeine is a global problem. And the FDA doesn’t require food manufacturers to review the caffeine count in everyday products. Even though caffeine is only mildly addictive, it’s very difficult to stop. I was ready to die when I drank coffee every day. I just stayed in bed. Now I feel so great. It’s been one of the most exciting health discoveries in my life.”