Study reveals: Which coffee variety is best for your well-being?

Filter coffee, espresso or French press? Researchers explain which preparation method is best for the heart and circulatory system.

With milk, condensed milk, even cream, or completely black – with white sugar or brown sugar, with sweetener or plain?

The way you drink coffee can be crucial to its health benefits.

A research team led by nutrition expert Walter C. Willett, a physician and epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Medicine and head of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, has found that the method of preparation has just as much influence on coffee’s healthfulness.

Drinking coffee every day: Healthy or unhealthy?

For a long time, coffee, consumed daily and in large quantities, had a bad reputation.

It was said that it promotes cardiovascular diseases, increases high blood pressure and also has an acidifying effect.

Willet and his colleagues found in their study that the right type of coffee, on the contrary, is beneficial to health. According to their findings, daily coffee consumption can even prolong life.

Study conclusion: This is how you should prepare coffee

According to the researchers, it is not the gently prepared espresso, nor the coffee with the gourmet crema from a portafilter machine, but simple filter coffee that is the healthiest.

In addition to the finding that coffee can help with weight loss because it curbs appetite and stimulates metabolism, the scientists identified further health benefits:

• Filter coffee lowers cholesterol levels.
• enhances the pain relief of tablets,
• has anti-inflammatory properties,
• protects against certain types of cancer (skin, breast, prostate cancer),
• reduces the risk of certain liver diseases (liver fibrosis and cirrhosis) and
• It reduces the risk of heart disease.

An earlier study by the same research team in 2006 already showed that moderate coffee consumption also reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Coffee contains important antioxidants and minerals.

Coffee contains many secondary plant compounds such as polyphenols and alkaloids.

These are important antioxidants that have anti-inflammatory effects and protect against free radicals that attack cell structure and are involved in the development of various diseases (including cancer and cardiovascular diseases).

Coffee also contains plenty of magnesium, potassium and vitamin B3.

Therefore, its overall effect can positively influence intestinal health and sugar and fat metabolism.

Why is filter coffee so healthy?

Besides these beneficial ingredients, harmful substances can also be produced during bean roasting. Therefore, the preparation of coffee is so crucial.

Unfiltered varieties, such as coffee from a French press or Turkish coffee, contain so-called diterpenes, which increase cholesterol levels.

Even the much-praised espresso, brewed using a gentle process, contains fewer, but still moderately many, harmful substances. Here too, a certain amount of coffee grounds remains in the cup, which is often ingested.

The study states that bad LDL cholesterol increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by a full 11 per cent with coffee other than filter coffee (six cups per day).

Unfiltered coffee is therefore particularly dangerous for people with lipid metabolism disorders.

Don’t drink excessive amounts of coffee.

Those who drink filtered coffee don’t need to worry about the quantity. Three to five cups a day are still considered beneficial to health. Of course, the strength and roast also play a role.

Incidentally, how bitter one perceives their coffee to be is partly dependent on genes. Some people lack certain receptors that detect bitter substances, which is why they perceive their coffee as milder than others who possess these receptors.

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