What if your coffee (also) affected your cholesterol?
We like it hot, strong, long or Italian-style. Coffee is our favorite morning ritual... but did you know that the way you prepare it can have an impact on your cardiovascular health?
No, it's not a nutritionist's fad or a new brunch debate topic - that's what a serious study conducted in Sweden has just confirmed, as reported by Slate and New Atlas, among others.
It's all in the infusion method
There's nothing inherently risky about drinking coffee. On the contrary, several studies have already extolled its virtues: antioxidant, stimulant, liver protector...
But here, the problem lies not with the coffee itself, but with two very specific compounds it contains: cafestol and kahweol. These are natural diterpenes present in coffee... provided they are not filtered.
And there's the rub: these compounds can raise "bad" cholesterol levels (LDL), and therefore increase the risk of heart disease - when they're not held back by a paper filter!
Machine, filter, Turkish coffee: who wins the health match?
Researchers at Uppsala University compared different types of preparation:
- Turkish or boiled coffee,
- machine coffee,
- and filter coffee with paper.
The verdict:
Boiled coffee is the big loser. Very rich in diterpenes, it significantly increases LDL.
Coffee machines, especially automatic ones, also let some of it through, although quantities vary from one machine to another.
Filter coffee (old-fashioned, with paper) contains the least.
So much so that replacing three cups of machine coffee with filter coffee five days a week could reduce your LDL cholesterol by 0.58 mmol/L, according to researchers - as much as if you put 60 ml of whole cream in each cup of filter coffee!
So what do we do with all this?
There's no need to panic. It's not a question of giving up coffee, or throwing away your favorite capsule machine. Simply :
- Vary pleasures (and methods)
- Choose a good filter coffee more often (and why not a piston coffee with a paper filter?).
- Limit Turkish or boiled coffee to occasional pleasures.
And above all, if you have high cholesterol or a sensitive cardiovascular condition, talk to your doctor!
As always, it's the dose and frequency that make the difference.
"The filtering process is crucial," explains David Iggman, one of the researchers behind the study."Not all coffee machines filter as well, but filter coffee remains the safest for cardiovascular health."
In short: filter your coffee like you filter your news!
Coffee is good. But filtered coffee is even better for your heart!
A small gesture that doesn't change the taste... but can make a real difference to your health in the long term, especially if you're the kind of person who likes to drink 4 cups a day ;)
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Adèle Peyches