The expert encourages people to "filter through" their own lives and their own cardiovascular risk factors to make a decision about how much and what type of coffee to drink.
May 26, 2006 (Press Release) --
A Dutch researcher who has also documented the cholesterol-boosting effect of unfiltered coffee agrees that the risks need to be seen in perspective.
"Unfiltered coffee has much less effect on your heart-disease risk than smoking, high blood pressure or being overweight," says Dr. Martijn B. Katan, a professor at the Wageningen Center for Food Sciences and Wageningen University. "But if you want to optimize your cholesterol levels, you should avoid large daily amounts of unfiltered coffee."
Unfiltered coffee seems to boost cholesterol the most, although a handful of recent studies hint that filtered coffee may have an effect on cholesterol, too. In one study, researchers in Sweden found that people who normally drank filtered coffee experienced a small drop in cholesterol levels when they stopped drinking coffee for a few weeks. The results were "surprising," according to Dr. Elisabeth Strandhagen, of Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, who led the study.
"We have done some tests on coffee filters, but we cannot explain why the filtered coffee had this effect on serum cholesterol," she says.
Despite the findings, filtered coffee seems to have a much smaller effect on cholesterol than unfiltered coffee. Strandhagen encourages people with high cholesterol or who are at high risk of heart disease to choose filtered coffee. They should also avoid coffee filters that have "aroma holes," which are very common in Sweden, she says.
Pieces of the puzzle
But filtered vs. unfiltered may not be the most important question to ask about coffee and cholesterol, according to a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.
"People try to pin a culprit" when it comes to coffee and cholesterol, "but people do not live in an isolated world," says Dr. Gail C. Frank, a professor of nutrition in the department of family and consumer sciences at California State University, Long Beach. According to Frank, there are "several pieces to the coffee story," including not only whether people drink filtered or unfiltered coffee, but how much they drink and what they are doing besides drinking coffee, such as smoking.
And a study by Greek researchers published in the Nov. 2 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests that combining smoking with coffee-drinking can increase the stiffness of arteries more than each of the activities alone. "Given the frequent combination of smoking and caffeine intake, these effects on arterial function may have important implications for human health," the researchers wrote.
Filtering through old habits
When making decisions about coffee, Frank encourages people not to look for a yes or no answer. It's not a simple question of "do drink coffee" or "don't drink coffee," she says.
While unfiltered coffee may contain substances that raise cholesterol levels, many popular coffee drinks sold at coffee houses contain other ingredients — cream and sugar, for example — that raise questions of their own about cholesterol.
Instead, Frank encourages people to "filter through" their own lives and their own cardiovascular risk factors to make a decision about how much and what type of coffee to drink.
Source: http://www.msn.com/
"Unfiltered coffee has much less effect on your heart-disease risk than smoking, high blood pressure or being overweight," says Dr. Martijn B. Katan, a professor at the Wageningen Center for Food Sciences and Wageningen University. "But if you want to optimize your cholesterol levels, you should avoid large daily amounts of unfiltered coffee."
Unfiltered coffee seems to boost cholesterol the most, although a handful of recent studies hint that filtered coffee may have an effect on cholesterol, too. In one study, researchers in Sweden found that people who normally drank filtered coffee experienced a small drop in cholesterol levels when they stopped drinking coffee for a few weeks. The results were "surprising," according to Dr. Elisabeth Strandhagen, of Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, who led the study.
"We have done some tests on coffee filters, but we cannot explain why the filtered coffee had this effect on serum cholesterol," she says.
Despite the findings, filtered coffee seems to have a much smaller effect on cholesterol than unfiltered coffee. Strandhagen encourages people with high cholesterol or who are at high risk of heart disease to choose filtered coffee. They should also avoid coffee filters that have "aroma holes," which are very common in Sweden, she says.
Pieces of the puzzle
But filtered vs. unfiltered may not be the most important question to ask about coffee and cholesterol, according to a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.
"People try to pin a culprit" when it comes to coffee and cholesterol, "but people do not live in an isolated world," says Dr. Gail C. Frank, a professor of nutrition in the department of family and consumer sciences at California State University, Long Beach. According to Frank, there are "several pieces to the coffee story," including not only whether people drink filtered or unfiltered coffee, but how much they drink and what they are doing besides drinking coffee, such as smoking.
And a study by Greek researchers published in the Nov. 2 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests that combining smoking with coffee-drinking can increase the stiffness of arteries more than each of the activities alone. "Given the frequent combination of smoking and caffeine intake, these effects on arterial function may have important implications for human health," the researchers wrote.
Filtering through old habits
When making decisions about coffee, Frank encourages people not to look for a yes or no answer. It's not a simple question of "do drink coffee" or "don't drink coffee," she says.
While unfiltered coffee may contain substances that raise cholesterol levels, many popular coffee drinks sold at coffee houses contain other ingredients — cream and sugar, for example — that raise questions of their own about cholesterol.
Instead, Frank encourages people to "filter through" their own lives and their own cardiovascular risk factors to make a decision about how much and what type of coffee to drink.
Source: http://www.msn.com/
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