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Does Coffee Raise Your Cholesterol?

With coffee chains on every corner, it is almost impossible to get through a day without swinging through and picking up an espresso or latte. But if you are worried about high cholesterol, swinging through that Starbucks might not be the best decision. In fact, studies from the Vriye Univeriteit Amsterdam Institute for Health Sciences, show that drinking five cups of unfiltered coffee per day for four weeks was associated with an increase in total cholesterol and LDL (bad cholesterol) levels in the blood 6 to 8 percent.

  1. Cholesterol

    • Cholesterol is a substance found in your bloodstream and cells. While cholesterol typically is seen as an enemy to your health, it does have useful properties such as assisting with the production of cell membranes and hormones. You want high levels of HDL cholesterol but low ones of LDL. If you have too much LDL in your blood, it can clog your arteries and lead to heart disease, heart attack or stroke.

    Cafestol

    • About 25 percent of your cholesterol comes from the foods you eat, most comes from animal fats. Cafestol is a compound found in both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee beans, including Robusta and Arabica beans. Cafestol interferes with the receptors in the body that regulate cholesterol levels. This is what makes cafestol a cholesterol-elevating substances.

    Brews

    • The way coffee is brewed affects the levels of cafestol. Unfiltered coffees are the risky culprits. Cafestol is at its highest in French press coffee, boiled Scandinavian brew, espresso and percolated coffees because the coffee is filtered very little if at all. Using a paper filter significantly decreases the levels of cafestol in coffee.

    Other Factors

    • Cafestol may not be the only risk factor lurking in your cup of coffee. Certain sugars and creams used by most coffee merchants have a cholesterol raising effect. Ask for skim milk and hold the whipped cream. Also, while smoking is already an added risk factor for high cholesterol, smoking and drinking coffee together may be a deadly combination. Arteries stiffen more while smoking and drinking coffee than when doing them separately.

    Who's Affected

    • While this information may cause you to pause before lifting that next cup of joe, not everyone needs to be concerned. According to Dr. Michael J. Klag, the vice dean for clinical investigation at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, only those people with high levels of cholesterol and blood sugar should think about switching to a filtered brew. If you have normal cholesterol levels and a healthy lifestyle, unfiltered brews should not affect your cholesterol levels too drastically.

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