This post comes from Lynn Mucken at MSN Money.

Focus! We have a problem here. Coffee prices are going up, faster than your eyelids after a cup of Starbucks French Roast at 6 a.m.

J.M. Smucker, which makes that American classic, Folgers, as well as the Millstone and Dunkin' Donuts brands, says it's increasing prices by 11%. At the same time, high-end Starbucks announced a 17% price hike for bagged coffee sold at its stores.

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According to the Department of Labor, a 1-pound can of ground coffee already sold for $5.10 in April, up 40% in a year. By comparison, the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline today is $3.81, up just 37% from a year earlier.

Yes, I know, the suffering is not comparable. We can always walk, or bike, or carpool. We cannot do without our coffee. 

Just look at the numbers:

Americans of coffee-drinking age average 416 eight-ounce cups of coffee a year, with 60- to 69-year-olds being the biggest consumers and those 25 to 29 drinking the least (they'll get off the Red Bull soon). They drink it at home (82% of their consumption) and work (17%) and on the way between home and work (9%).

What's more, coffee is good for you. Post continues after video.

The Harvard School of Public Health announced recently that heavy coffee drinkers -- six or more cups a day -- had a 20% lower chance of getting prostate cancer than non-drinkers. That figure jumped to 60% for the most-lethal forms of prostate cancer. (It was still 27% if you drank just one to three cups a day.)

Previous medical studies showed that coffee reduces the chances of getting type 2 diabetes, gallstones, colon cancer, liver damage and Parkinson's disease. It also improves cognitive function and increases endurance in long-duration physical activities.

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With benefits like that, coffee should, like fluoride, be distributed free, though probably not through the same water system.

OK, there is a tiny downside to coffee. Caffeine, coffee's main ingredient, is considered mildly addictive. I guess that something that gives you a screaming headache if you go without it for 24 hours is a bit addictive. But just have another cup and be more careful next time.

The other negatives -- increased heart rate and increased blood pressure -- look like pretty good tradeoffs considering the benefits.

And those hyper types who jabber away after a couple of cups? Seems like they were more than a little weird even without the coffee.

Almost forgot; this is a personal-finance blog post (three cups by 8:36 this morning -- scary). OK, here's the advice:

Wait it out. This is usual supply-and-demand factor. Harvests of high-grade arabica beans were bad in Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico and Vietnam. At the same time, there is a growing taste for upmarket coffee in China, Brazil, India and Indonesia. 

In the meantime, if you can't handle paying $16.24 for a pound bag of Starbucks' finest, you can go back to Folgers. Here's a better idea: Give up all those vegetables.