Coffee has no cholesterol but does raise its levels. And someone has discovered the perfect elaboration to limit it

We are increasingly clear that coffee is a food with Positive properties for our health. However, it has traditionally been surrounded by many myths. Many of them Caffeine relatedbut also some related to things as serious as supposed damage to the heart and its incidence in cholesterol levels. And the latter is half myth.

Because coffee has no cholesterol, but compounds that, depending on how we prepare it, will influence more or less on LDL (“bad cholesterol”).

Cafestol and Kahweol. Let’s see, if coffee has no cholesterol, how do some of its compounds do have an impact on cholesterol? The reason is that we do not drink coffee in grain, but we crush it to get a ‘dust’ from which to get an extraction and, therefore, the coffee cup. When we break down the coffee beans the oils of it are released, and in them we have fat -soluble diterpenes that are those that have an impact on blood cholesterol levels.

Mixed effects. These compounds have some health benefits, since they have anti -inflammatory and anticancer properties. It has also been observed that it favors osteoblastic activity that helps bone health and can have antidiabetic effects. However, the contradictions are there.

Although both have a similar effect, it is cafestol that acts as an enemy of FXR receptors, inhibiting the synthesis of bile acids in the liver and, therefore, reducing its effectiveness by eliminating the cholesterol from our body. When this occurs, cholesterol levels increase, with more notable increases in LDL cholesterol.

The investigation. Does this mean that I must stop drinking coffee? Not much less, since although these diterpenes can influence cholesterol levels, lead It allows to maintain the cholesterol at bay. We are not talking about sugary drinks or alcohol, go. Now, in a investigation carried out by the University of Uppsala in collaboration with the Technological University of Chalmers have found the coffee preparation method that less Cafestol and Kahweol allows our body to reach.

Processing. To do this, the team took two coffee samples from different offices resting machine machines every two or three weeks, with coffee varieties that included average and dark gall of five trademarks of ground coffee. Most machines use ground coffee, but a couple They grind before (the super -automatic). In total, eleven machines were analyzed, three that use coffee concentrate (mix with water). Compared the results with other preparation methods such as percolation, the French press, boiled coffee and samples of espresso.

The goal is to see which one prepares coffee with the highest levels of both coffee and kahweol. And the result is overwhelming.

Boiled coffee. In the upper graph we can see the concentration of coffee in the different elaborations and there is a clear winner, as well as an obvious “loser”. Previously, it had indicated that boiled coffee was the highest source of these diterpenes and was not as recommended on a regular basis. And it is logical because it does not filter coffee at all. On the contrary, the best elaboration to reduce coffee to the minimum possible is through filter coffee.

Here there are variations depending on the filter material, but in the analyzes it is shown as the elaboration that, in a more consistent way, keeps the coffee levels in coffee. Interestingly, we can achieve the same effect by preparing boiled coffee if we like it more and then filtering it, which is the icon of the chart sock.

Too many variables. A problem that researchers were found is that, although the concentrations of diterpenes in the machine of the machines was always inferior to the preparations of boiled coffee and other elaborations such as French pressthe concentrations vary significantly between machines and between the sampling intervals. Of the machines, those that use liquid concentrated coffee have lower levels of diterpenes, similar to those of the filtered coffee.

Typologies. This may be due to the type of coffee that is placed in the machine or the temperature at which they heat the water, but there is a more disconcerting case: that of the espresso. The researchers comment that a “considerable and clear explanation variation is observed in the concentration of diterpenes among the four samples analyzed”, recognizing that it is something that requires an additional study because it could be relevant to the usual consumers of this preparation.

And limitations. The team has focused on measuring the concentration of diterpenes, ensuring that it is known that they negatively affect other lipoproteins such as triglycerides, but that it is an aspect that they have not taken into account for their research. In addition, they also recognize that, although the results are solid and there is a “better way to prepare coffee” to maximize coffee, the study has important limitations.

On the one hand, the size of the sample, since these are several collection maintained over time, yes, but of eleven concrete machines when there are many, many more in the market. On the other hand, there are variables such as water pressure and temperature, contact time between ground coffee and hot water, grinding or grain gall.

Next steps. Come on, too many things, something logical taking into account that there are not only many different coffee machines, but a huge fan in terms of water and coffee gut. It is something that, they point out, it would be interesting to analyze in the future, as well as studies that compare coffee consumers of companies with coffee machines in front of others in which they use paper filtered with paper.

In whatever, there are many studies and they themselves comment that “long -term prospective studies on cardiovascular results that could help confirm the causality of the associations” must be carried out between the diterpenes and the increase in LDL cholesterol. At the moment, I will continue to have coffee regularly, but what it may do is stay somewhat further from boiled coffee.

Images | Uppsala University, WCC, Mit (Jason Sparapani)

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