Healthy living
Coffee type matters While it didn’t delve into the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’, the QMUL study did offer up some pointers. Intriguingly, the type of coffee people were drinking seemed to make a difference to their heart health. While ground coffee was associated with decreased mortality over the study period, the same did not apply to instant. Decaf coffee, however, retained the benefits, suggesting that any cardioprotective effect might be due to something other than caffeine. “Experimental data increasingly supports the antioxidants found in ground coffee might be the key components of this beneficial effect,” says Peterson. “The health impact of caffeine is still debated – although many studies have concluded that long-term coffee consumption has no clinical importance on the risk of hypertension.” Different coffee types, he explains, have different production processes. That means each contains its own signature blend of chemicals. “As an example, instant coffee is reported to contain approximately twice as much acrylamide than ground coffee, a substance which has been shown to be neurotoxic and carcinogenic,” he says. Unfiltered coffee, meanwhile, features high levels of diterpenes, which have been associated with an increase in LDL (bad) cholesterol and diminished heart health. A large Norwegian study from 2020 found that brewing method mattered: unfiltered brew was linked with higher mortality than filtered brew, whereas filtered brew was linked with lower mortality than no coffee consumption at all. Mills agrees that there’s much more to coffee than the caffeine alone. The beverage contains a number of biologically active compounds – chlorogenic acids, trigonelline, diterpenes, melanoidins etcetera – each of which will have a different impact on health.
“I am particularly interested in the impact of coffee chlorogenic acids on cardiovascular disease risk,” she says. “Chlorogenic acids are a subclass of polyphenols [a type of antioxidant], the same group of compounds that are found in blueberries and cocoa. Coffee is extremely high in chlorogenic acids, and we have demonstrated in randomised controlled trials that they can reduce cardiovascular disease risk. More research is definitely needed to prove this.”
Getting the most from your brew So, what should coffee consumers take from this debate? Well, most of the research offers a tentative green light to those twice-daily Americanos – and you don’t need to go for the caffeinated option if it gives you the jitters.
“For coffee lovers who might have a sensitivity Ingredients Insight /
www.ingredients-insight.com
to caffeine, coffee producers are now utilising more natural processes to remove caffeine and preserve the quality of the coffee,” says De-Garnham. “Our Popyan decaf is processed using fermented sugarcane, and it’s just as delicious as any of its caffeinated counterparts.” Mills thinks the jury’s still out on the health impacts of coffee. However, if coffee consumers are serious about maximising the benefits, they might want to limit their consumption of boiled, unfiltered coffee so as to avoid the diterpenes. For obvious reasons, they should also steer clear of added cream, sugar or syrup.
Coffee drinkers are advised to limit their consumption of boiled, unfiltered coffee.
“For coffee lovers who might have a sensitivity to caffeine, coffee producers are now utilising more natural processes to remove caffeine and preserve the quality of the coffee.”
Thomas De-Garnham, Fireheart Coffee
“It’s difficult to advocate a specifical preparation method, as the evidence is so scarce,” she says. “However, we know that chlorogenic acids are decreased during the coffee roasting process. Chlorogenic acids potentially contribute towards the observed cardioprotective effects of coffee consumption, so choosing less roasted coffee over darker roasts could carry some benefit.” Time and again, researchers have found that moderate coffee consumption is relatively harmless at worst, and actively beneficial at best. In other words, it can’t hurt to adopt the philosophy ‘a little of what you fancy does you good’. As well as setting you up for the day, your morning cup of joe might just come with a whole raft of additional health benefits. ●
17% QMUL 55
Compared with non-coffee drinkers, light-to-moderate coffee drinkers have a lower risk of death from cardiovascular diseases, and a 21% lower risk of stroke.
Africa Studio/
Shutterstock.com
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