Screening for a cholesterol elevator
Folks have heard so much hype about cholesterol levels that they’re all a-jitter about their numbers.
There’s a different type of jitter you might want to be concerned with: That cup of coffee. If you’re washing down your cholesterol worries with it, you may very well be increasing your cholesterol level!
That’s according to a finding about cafestol, a compound found in coffee oils. It is considered to be the most powerful dietary cholesterol-raising agent—and that’s really saying something.
A prior study had looked at the effect of consuming five daily cups of French-press coffee for four weeks and found that doing so raises cholesterol in the blood by 6 percent to 8 percent.
The highest levels of cafestol are found in French-press coffee, espresso, and a boiled Scandinavian brew. The reason it’s highest in these is the way they’re brewed—without a filter. It seems that brewing with a filter removes cafestol. And if you think drinking decaf coffee will take care of the problem—it won’t. Decaffeinated coffee still contains the compound.
Now a new study has built upon this prior one, to figure out exactly how cafestol manages to have this effect. The researchers have pinpointed the intestine as the entry point for cholesterol elevation, due to its involvement in transporting bile acids.
What happens is that cafestol activates a bile receptor in the intestine, which reduces the effects of liver genes that regulate cholesterol levels in your body.
If you’re determined to have that cup of coffee—be sure to use a paper filter in order to screen out this compound.
