Why filter coffee is bad for you

Daily Mail ^ | James Chapman

[rickmichaels]

Dropping coffee from your diet could reduce the risk of heart disease by as much as 15 per cent, according to a study.

Britons spend £850million a year on coffee. But experts suggest it can raise levels of cholesterol and homo-cysteine in the blood - both associated with heart disease and strokes.

There has been concern about the possible dangers of unfiltered coffee for some time but the more widelyconsumed filtered coffee has generally been given a clean bill of health.

The latest study suggests there may be a link between even filtered coffee and cardiovascular disease.

The team, led by Dr Benedicte Christensen of the Ulleval University Hospital in Oslo, concluded that compounds in coffee called terpenoids - which are only partially removed by filtering - were responsible for raising the heart disease risk.

Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition today, they say abstaining from average amounts of coffee may lower the concentrations of both tHcy (total homocysteine) and total cholesterol.

Dr Christensen stud-ied a group of 183 Norwegian men and women, aged 24 to 69. Cholesterol and tHcy levels went down in those subjects who abstained from coffee.

Those who usually have an average of four cups of coffee per day could reduce their cholesterol-related risk of heart disease by 15 per cent and homocysteinerelated risk by ten per cent, the scientists say.

The conclusions were disputed, however, by Catherine Collins, chief dietician at St George's Hospital in London.

She said: 'If you're drinking six or ten cups of coffee a day, or if you are an elderly person with a history of heart disease or high cholesterol, you might want to think about moderating your intake. But I am not convinced it is a major problem.'

[T-Bone Texan]

Terpenoids are the hot new components that are in cannabis.

New in that there is increased medical interest.

They do not get you “high”, but the ones It’s ‘ve read about have many properties of interest to the older FReeper:

Antiinflammatory.
Analgesic.
Antispasmodic/antiseizure.
Anticancer.
Antibiotic.
Bone-growth stimulator.

One terpene, Myrcine, temporarily weakens the blood-brain barrier. That alone has enormous consequences for the medical field .

Lest I harp on cannabis, please note that the above-mentioned Myrcine also occurs in mangoes, and the terpene called Linalool is what is in lavender that gives it it’s relaxing effect.

I love terpenes.

[pallmallman]

“Let’s have another cup of coffee”
“Let’s have another piece of pie”

[rickmichaels]

Mmmmm...pie!!!