The Healthiest Way to Drink Coffee

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Why do those who drink filtered coffee tend to live longer than those who drink unfiltered coffee?

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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

As I explained in my last video, chlorogenic acid, the main antioxidant in coffee, enhances autophagy in human cells, which may explain why coffee is linked to a longer life. If everyone drank three cups (720 ml) of coffee a day, millions of healthy years of life could potentially be saved every year in the United States alone. Which coffee has the most chlorogenic acid?

More than a hundred coffees, espressos, cappuccinos, and instant coffees have been tested, and chlorogenic acid contents varied by more than 30-fold. Interestingly, the major contributor to this wide range was the coffee purchased from Starbucks, which had an extremely low antioxidant content. This may be because Starbucks roasts its beans so dark it destroys it. The more you roast coffee, the lower the antioxidant levels fall. Caffeine is relatively stable to heat, but a dark roast may wipe out nearly 90 percent of the chlorogenic acid content of the beans. However, the difference between a medium light roast and a medium roast did not appear to matter, at least when it came to boosting the total antioxidant status in people’s bloodstreams after drinking them.

Soy milk in coffee appears to be fine but adding dairy milk or creamer seems to cut the bioavailability of chlorogenic acid down by about 40 percent.

The freeze-drying and spray-drying processes used to make instant coffee don’t appear to significantly affect chlorogenic acid levels, but the method of preparing fresh coffee does. Brewed coffee has higher chlorogenic acid content than espresso, presumably due to the longer contact time between the water and coffee grounds and the greater ultimate volume. No differences were found between cold brew or hot.

The brewing method can also impact our cholesterol levels. The culprits are two compounds, cafestol and kahweol, which are found in the fines of the coffee grounds, tiny particles that get trapped in the paper filter. This explains why filtered coffee doesn’t raise cholesterol as much as boiled, French press, or Turkish coffee does. If you don’t have optimal cholesterol levels, you should consider sticking to paper-filtered coffee or using instant coffee, which also lacks these compounds. Mesh filters are likely insufficient, as even paper filters sporting “micro perforations” allow more of the cholesterol-raising compounds to slip through, particularly when the coffee is ground especially fine.

And indeed, those drinking unfiltered coffee were found to have higher mortality rates than those drinking filtered coffee––though any kind of coffee may be better than no coffee at all, at least for women. These findings led some to bemoan the growing popularity of unfiltered brews from capsule coffee machines, but if you cut them open, you can see that the little plastic cups actually do have a paper filter inside. However, capsule coffee ends up with more estrogenic chemicals in it, as one would expect from exposing nearly any sort of plastic to hot enough water, but the levels found were low compared to established safety guidelines.

If coffee can extend our lives by boosting autophagy, potentially preventing hundreds of thousands of cases or deaths from various diseases, should everyone be drinking it? Is there anyone who should avoid coffee? We’ll find out next.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Motion graphics by Avo Media

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

As I explained in my last video, chlorogenic acid, the main antioxidant in coffee, enhances autophagy in human cells, which may explain why coffee is linked to a longer life. If everyone drank three cups (720 ml) of coffee a day, millions of healthy years of life could potentially be saved every year in the United States alone. Which coffee has the most chlorogenic acid?

More than a hundred coffees, espressos, cappuccinos, and instant coffees have been tested, and chlorogenic acid contents varied by more than 30-fold. Interestingly, the major contributor to this wide range was the coffee purchased from Starbucks, which had an extremely low antioxidant content. This may be because Starbucks roasts its beans so dark it destroys it. The more you roast coffee, the lower the antioxidant levels fall. Caffeine is relatively stable to heat, but a dark roast may wipe out nearly 90 percent of the chlorogenic acid content of the beans. However, the difference between a medium light roast and a medium roast did not appear to matter, at least when it came to boosting the total antioxidant status in people’s bloodstreams after drinking them.

Soy milk in coffee appears to be fine but adding dairy milk or creamer seems to cut the bioavailability of chlorogenic acid down by about 40 percent.

The freeze-drying and spray-drying processes used to make instant coffee don’t appear to significantly affect chlorogenic acid levels, but the method of preparing fresh coffee does. Brewed coffee has higher chlorogenic acid content than espresso, presumably due to the longer contact time between the water and coffee grounds and the greater ultimate volume. No differences were found between cold brew or hot.

The brewing method can also impact our cholesterol levels. The culprits are two compounds, cafestol and kahweol, which are found in the fines of the coffee grounds, tiny particles that get trapped in the paper filter. This explains why filtered coffee doesn’t raise cholesterol as much as boiled, French press, or Turkish coffee does. If you don’t have optimal cholesterol levels, you should consider sticking to paper-filtered coffee or using instant coffee, which also lacks these compounds. Mesh filters are likely insufficient, as even paper filters sporting “micro perforations” allow more of the cholesterol-raising compounds to slip through, particularly when the coffee is ground especially fine.

And indeed, those drinking unfiltered coffee were found to have higher mortality rates than those drinking filtered coffee––though any kind of coffee may be better than no coffee at all, at least for women. These findings led some to bemoan the growing popularity of unfiltered brews from capsule coffee machines, but if you cut them open, you can see that the little plastic cups actually do have a paper filter inside. However, capsule coffee ends up with more estrogenic chemicals in it, as one would expect from exposing nearly any sort of plastic to hot enough water, but the levels found were low compared to established safety guidelines.

If coffee can extend our lives by boosting autophagy, potentially preventing hundreds of thousands of cases or deaths from various diseases, should everyone be drinking it? Is there anyone who should avoid coffee? We’ll find out next.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Motion graphics by Avo Media

Doctor's Note

This video is the second in a three-part series. Check out Does Coffee Help Boost Autophagy and Lifespan? if you missed the first video, and stay tuned for Who Should Avoid Coffee?. 

Here are the videos I mentioned: Does Adding Milk Block the Benefits of Coffee? and Does Coffee Affect Cholesterol?. 

For more on coffee, see:

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