What Is The Healthiest Way To Brew Coffee
Over the years, coffee has been celebrated for everything from extending life span to lowering Type 2 diabetes risk, but a new study suggests that the way you prepare your daily cup of joe might be just as crucial as what youre drinking in the first place.
An observational study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology in April took a closer look at the coffee habits of 508,747 men and women between the ages of 20 and 79 and found that drinking unfiltered coffee was associated with higher rates of heart disease and death than drinking filtered coffee. The Norwegian study analyzed data gathered over 18 years from 1985-2003 and relied on self-reported cases of coffee consumption and cardiovascular disease.
Accroding to Aage Tverdal, a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and lead author of the paper, he and his co-authors wanted to study the impact of different coffee brewing methods on heart health because it could be one of the many factors contributing to why some people who drink coffee see benefits and others do not.
Since the 1980s, scientists have understood that drinking coffee can impact cholesterol. Research has shown that compounds called diterpenes in unfiltered coffee, specifically cafestol and kahweol , can raise LDL or bad cholesterol levels. With this in mind, Tverdal told TODAY Health in an email that his team posed the question, Does the use of filter have an effect on mortality?
Add Some Cinnamon To Your Coffee
Cinnamon is a tasty spice that mixes particularly well with the flavor of coffee.
Studies show that cinnamon can lower blood glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides in diabetics .
If you need some flavor, try adding a dash of cinnamon. Its surprisingly good.
To lower the risk of potential adverse effects, opt for Ceylon cinnamon instead of the more common Cassia cinnamon, if possible.
Summary
Spice your coffee with a dash of cinnamon. Not only does it taste good, it might also improve your health.
Health & Wellnesscoffee Lover You May Just Live Longer 2 Studies Find
These results were not surprising to the researchers or to Dr. Andrew Freeman, the director for cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver and a member of the American College of Cardiologys Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Section Leadership Council, who was not involved with the study.
Filtered coffee seems to be quite healthful, Freeman told TODAY. “Depending on what study you look at, anywhere between 2 and 6 cups a day actually reduces cardiovascular events.” But it doesnt mean that you should start drinking coffee if the beverage isnt already part of your regular diet. Its important that if one is going to drink coffee that they probably should drink it habitually. If you drink coffee sporadically, meaning not every day, that can actually raise blood pressure.
Freeman also cautions, If people are sensitive, meaning they have blood pressure or arrhythmia or atrial fibrillation or other things like that, I recommend they avoid coffee altogether.
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Benefits Of Black Coffee
Iâm not trying to sound like a âcool guyâ over here, but black coffee is the way to go!I love treating myself to some creative creamer on occasion, but the sugar dump that comes with italways seems to slow me down. The last thing I want when trying to acquire more energy is a sugar crash.Drinking black coffee also helps trim up that beach bod. Itâs keto-friendly too! If youre interested in keto, we have an article dedicated to the dos and donts of drinking coffee while on keto.
This is the nutrition list for the average cup of coffee: 0% fat, 0% cholesterol, 0% sodium, 0%carbohydrates, 0% sugar, and 4% potassium.
Adding anything else to your coffee is only adding calories. Although thereâs little evidence to back it up, black coffee is known to aid in weight loss by temporarily boosting your metabolism.
For you heavy coffee drinkers, you understand itsâ¦cleansing effects. It runs everything out of yoursystem providing you a clean slate.
Apart from your bowls, black coffee helps your brain too! Itâs been observed increasing cognitive thought in individuals drinking between 3 to 4 cups a day. It also helps the liver by reducing the production of harmful enzymes responsible for fatty liver, cirrhosis, and a variety of cancers.
For more on this, take a look at our article, Coffee and Weight Gain: The Truth.
Coffee May Help You Live Longer According To New Study
Since the 1980s, scientists have understood that drinking coffee can impact cholesterol. Research has shown that compounds called diterpenes in unfiltered coffee, specifically cafestol and kahweol , can raise LDL or bad cholesterol levels. With this in mind, Tverdal told TODAY Health in an email that his team posed the question, Does the use of filter have an effect on mortality?
The study focused specifically on drip coffee brewed with paper filters, the traditional preparation in Norway. Another popular form of filtered coffee is the pour-over method. Unfiltered coffee was defined as a drink made from ground coffee beans simmer in close-to-boiling water. This type of brewing method can include French press, Greek style or Turkish style brews.
Over half of participants preferred filtered coffee, 20% drank unfiltered coffee, 9% consumed both brews and 12% drank no coffee at all. Men who drank unfiltered coffee had a higher mortality than the men not drinking coffee and women who drank all three types of brews had significantly lower heart disease mortality. Among coffee consumers, the reference group of 1-4 cups per day of ltered brew had the lowest mortality and 9 cups per day of unltered brew had the highest mortality.
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Healthy Or Hype: Mushroom Coffee
Healthy. Mushroom coffee isnât made of mushrooms — itâs coffee plus mushroom extract, typically from lionâs mane, chaga, cordyceps, or reishi mushrooms. It has less caffeine and doubles down on the inflammation-reducing antioxidants, so itâs good for you as long as you donât load it down with sugar and cream. Thereâs not enough research to back up all the health claims yet, such as an immune system boost.
Add A Creamy Ingredient
You can use any unsweetened milk, plant milk, or cream you love. I often choose unsweetened vanilla cashew milk because it adds a lovely nutty flavor and is already naturally sweet. Almond or hazelnut milk will do as well.
Usually, I measure about ¼ cup of milk per cup of coffee because I like it that way. But feel free to make yours lighter or stronger by adding less. Taste test and find your perfect coffee to milk ratio!
Note: Make cashew milk ice cubes in advance for an instant iced latte. Cashew milk freezes well, and they pop easily out of ice cube trays. Replace them with regular water ice cubes for a less diluted coffee flavor.
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Battle Of The Beans Which Coffee Bean Is Healthiest
The stuff isnât cheap, yet we buy mountains of the stuff every day. Thereâs an average of 27 million bags of coffee sold every year in the U.S. alone. Thatâs a lot of money spent on coffee, so why wouldnât we find the best beans!
There are two main beans that are used for most coffee production around the world: Arabica andRobusta beans.Arabica is the higher-end beans used for all those fancy rich roasts. They make up 60% of all coffeeproduction around the planet, but that high quality doesnât come without a catch. They are knownto be very sensitive beans. The plants they come from are easily influenced by their environmentand highly prone to disease and mold.Robusta beans are slightly lower grade, but unlike its sister plant, itâs incredibly durable and almostvirtually immune to disease. You can grow these suckers in almost any climate, A true powerhouse.
These beans are typically used to make flavored coffee as they are cheaper than arabica beans.
Have you ever tried Green Coffee Beans? They might be the magic beans you didnât know existed.These are simply beans that have skipped the roasting process, served in their raw state. They contain higher acidic properties, relieving constricted blood vessels preventing high blood pressure.Their popularity within the health niche continues to rise every day.
How Do You Remove Cafestol From A French Press
Based on a paper published in 2018 by the National Library of Medicine, the characteristics of paper filters and low cafestol content from filter coffee brews were explained.
The study acknowledges that a paper filter will reduce diterpenes but the results showed the porosity of the paper filter and the size of the ground roasted coffee makes a significant difference resulting in lower cafestol contents
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Make Your Coffee Healthier
So, there you have it. The absolute healthiest cup of coffee uses high-altitude beans, a lighter roast, a fine grind, a filter, hot but not boiling water, and is served black. Most of the health benefits that have been studied resulted when people drank four to five 8-ounce cups of coffee daily, Arnot says. That amount does fall within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recommended limit for daily caffeine intake , but if you use these guidelines to prepare your brew in the healthiest way, you can pack more polyphenols into a single cup and get the same benefits by drinking less. And if youre sensitive to caffeine, dont worry: Decaf coffee has a similar roster of benefits.
Additional reporting by Jill Waldbieser.
Light Vs Dark Roast Coffee
Coffee beans start out green and fairly uninteresting. Its the roasting that brings out the flavors. The darker the roast, the longer it spends in the roaster.
Light roast advantages include less oil oxidation. The lighter the roast and the fresher the coffee, the lower the oil oxidation. Keeping it in whole bean form also increases the resistance, while grinding it prematurely will oxidize the oil and mar the taste.
Light roasts tend to have more caffeine, as the roasting process degrades caffeine. But caffeine content also depends on the bean some have more than others.
Both are good, health-wise. Some studies suggest that dark roast has a better effect than light roast on antioxidant capacity in those who drink it. Light roasts tend to be higher in chlorogenic acids, which have been shown to improve subjective mood and ability to focuseven when the coffee is decaf. Medium roasts also have antioxidant effects.
Theyre all good. Coffee just works.
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What Is The Healthiest Way To Make A Fresh Cup Of Coffee
According to the European Society of Cardiology coffee is linked to a raised cholesterol because of the lipid raising substances that are in a cup of coffee. In an unfiltered cup of coffee, there is 30 times the concentration of these substances compared to a filtered cup of coffee.
These substances are actually oils called diterpenes. They have gotten press for raising overall cholesterol and raising LDL cholesterol.
There have been contrary studies done that showed they are also responsible for many of the health benefits that we get from coffee.
It may be best to stay away from unfiltered coffee if you are suffering from high cholesterol or heart disease.
Coffee pods and standard drip coffee use filters that reduce the levels of diterpenes. Instant coffee contains no diterpenes because of the way it is processed.
The coffees to stay away from if you have high cholesterol is french press and cold brew coffees. Cold-brew retains the most diterpenes because there are no filters involved and the coffee grounds steep in the coffee for long periods of time. In a french press, there is usually a stainless steel mesh that may help in filtering the coffee, but most of the diterpenes still get through and end up in your cup of coffee.
The stainless-steel mesh filter on a French press and the basic open pour-over method allows the coffees natural oils to pass, which not only improves flavor but also preserves cancer-fighting polyphenols.
Dave Asprey, Creator of Bulletproof Lattes
What’s The Healthiest Way To Brew Coffee
There are two main factors to consider when brewing your coffeethe potential toxicity of the container material, and the brewing method’s effect on the bean itself.
When it comes to the former, experts recommend a French press or pour-over method since you can easily find vessels made completely of glass or stainless steel, an impossible task in the other forms of coffee creation. These methods also allow the most benefits regarding the latter: “The stainless-steel mesh filter on a French press and the basic open pour-over method allows the coffee’s natural oils to pass, which not only improves flavor but also preserves cancer-fighting polyphenols,” explains bestselling author Dave Asprey, who revolutionized the coffee world with his invention of Bulletproof lattes, which are spiked with fat for even more health benefits. There are other drawbacks of non-pour-over or French press methods as well. “Your beloved coffee pods and single-brew machines have the potential to be the least healthy for your body because of the pod packaging and the potential for mold growth in the machine, unless they are getting cleaned regularly and properly,” says Cole.
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Does This Mean That French Press Coffee Is Bad For You
Well, kind of.I love French press coffee. It is quick and easy to make, and I tend to have a little fun with it.
It was the perfect tool for when I had roommates and wanted to sneak a personal pot of coffee into my room as I worked.
Itâs probably not a good idea to drink only from a French press.
People who experience rises in LDL-cholesterol levels usually find this to be the problem. LDL levels are linked to triglycerides, which is fat thatâs stored for extra energy. The result of too many triglycerides is typical with French pressed coffee.
A study performed by the Harvard Health Blog in 2016 shows that paper filters are over 300 percent more effective at trapping these devious molecules over metal filters. Thatâs where the problem with French press java truly lies, that metal filter. Metal filters used in any brewing process yields similar results.
Metal filters do a terrible job keeping phytochemicals out of your cup of joe.
While they still capture some of the diterpenes , they pale in comparison to their paper counterparts.
The bottom line is that too much of anything is bad for you. So, go ahead and bust that press out, just keep an eye on the moderation.
In fact, Aage Tverdal, a researcher at the Norwegian Department of Public Health, says- âWhatever kind of coffee you drink, enjoy your coffee. If itâs convenient, drink filtered coffee, especially if you have high cholesterol.â
If using the French press is non-negotiable, then use a French press!
Ochratochin A In Coffee
This toxin is responsible for dopamine depletion in the brain and brain damage. Dopamine is a chemical that is responsible for stimulating the pleasure centers in your brain. It regulates mood, sleep patterns, learning, motor control, memory, and concentration.
With this toxin you will be experiencing low dopamine and chronic fatigue. You may even mistake this for depression.
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The Healthiest Way To Brew A Cup Of Coffee
Coffee is the morning beverage of choice for many of us. It helps wake us up and gives us a boost to tackle our days. It’s actually pretty good for you too. Coffee can help boost your mood and keep your heart and brain healthy .
But besides what you add to it does how you brew your coffee impact the healthiness of it? New research says yes. A recently published study in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiologyfound that using a filter may make your coffee better for you. Filters help remove compounds in your coffee that may raise cholesterol.
Norwegian researchers looked at over 500,000 people and found that those who drank filtered coffee had a lower risk of premature death, compared to people who drank unfiltered coffee or no coffee. They found the best cardiovascular outcomes in people who drank between 1-4 cups of filtered coffee per day.
“Unfiltered coffee contains substances which increase blood cholesterol. Using a filter removes these and makes heart attacks and premature death less likely,” Professor Dag S. Thelle of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and study author stated in a press release.
While the research is only observational it seems like an easy switch to make for most people, especially if they just want some caffeine. Thelle added, “For people who know they have high cholesterol levels and want to do something about it, stay away from unfiltered brew. For everyone else, drink your coffee with a clear conscience and go for filtered.”
Healthy Flavored Iced Latte
Now that we’ve gone over the finer details on making a cold brew concentrate and creating an iced drink with a hot brewed coffee for the less patient ones let’s look at a basic recipe for making a healthy flavored iced coffee.
This is my favorite way of adding a sweet perk to my cup of coffee the natural way.
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What Is Protein Coffee
Proffee is exactly what it sounds like. Coffee that is combined with protein powder or a prepared protein shake, usually served over ice, and sometimes flavored syrups are added. Its a delicious drink for anyone who wants to up their protein intake or post workout muscle recovery.
The recipe Im sharing in the recipe card below is made with cold brew coffee and a bottled store-bought protein shake. But, there are many ways to customize it depending on your preferences. Ill be giving several variations and optional add-ins for protein coffee throughout this post.