Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: taregg on 03/08/2013 15:08:25
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Why decaf coffee increase cholesterol in blood level more than regular coffee?
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can some body answer my question...
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The articles that I read indicated that Caffeine doesn't increase cholesterol, but rather other chemicals in the coffee, specifically diterpenes (cafestol and kahweol). At least coffee brewed with paper filters have less diterpenes than boiled coffee, although percolated apparently is also low on the diterpenes. However, various types of boiled coffee such as Turkish coffee is higher for the diterpenes. Espresso is apparently worse than American filtered coffee, but not as bad as Turkish for the diterpenes.
Anyway, a few (older) notes I found on the internet (here (http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/15/us/decaffeinated-coffee-tied-to-cholesterol-rise.html) and here (http://goaskalice.columbia.edu/decaffeinated-coffee-cholesterol), also here (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:9C6o5A-FHAkJ:www.theheart.org/article/607549.do+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a)) indicate that different types of beans are typically used for caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, with regular coffee being brewed with Arabica beans, and decaffeinated coffee being brewed with Robusta beans. It doesn't say exactly why, but apparently the Robusta beans are worse for cholesterol than the Arabica beans. However, the studies that I was reading about the comparison of Robusta bean extract vs Arabica bean extract (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7782725) seem to indicate different diterpene makeup of the two extracts, but the differences in cholesterol impact seems negligible.
My guess is that further studies will show less discrepancy between caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee.
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Before you shut off your coffee maker, it is important to get the facts straight: the cholesterol-raising effect of coffee is actually due to the type of bean used, and not the caffeine content. Decaffeinated coffee is often derived from Robusta beans, which may have slightly higher cholesterol-raising effects. Unlike Arabica beans (generally used for caffeinated coffee), Robusta beans are reported to have a greater ability to stimulate fatty acid production in the body. Next to drinking coffee,make sure you search for foods that lower cholesterol (http://loweringcholesterolguide.com/foods-that-lower-cholesterol/) and help your body get rid of excess cholesterol!