Coffee: A solved annoyance helps curb high cholesterol

Melitta Bentz was 35 in 1908 and frustrated with grounds in her coffee. It was a common complaint but one the rest of the world seemed willing to tolerate. Percolators of the day over-brewed coffee at the expense of its taste, imparting an annoying bitter flavor. Linen rags would retain the grounds but were messy and required frequent cleaning. Surely, something else could provide an appealing compromise, she thought, and be quicker, easier and cleaner.

She experimented with several materials. She wasn’t satisfied with any of them until she grabbed some blotting paper from her son’s school book, punctured it multiple times with a nail, put it in a brass pot she filled with coffee grounds, then poured hot water over it. Bingo! No bitterness, no grounds! It was an instant hit with her friends, switching on the proverbial light in Melitta’s entrepreneurial brain.

Melitta was granted a patent for her filter in July 1908 and within months, her company was up and running with its initial four employees: Melitta herself plus her husband Hugo and sons Willy and Horst. Producing filters at first within their home, they sold more than a thousand of them at the Leipzig Fair in 1909. Demand for the simple, newfangled invention exploded thereafter. In 1936, Melitta improvised her original design and turned her filter into the now-famous cone shape with which we are all familiar.

-Lawrence W. Reed, Foundation for Economic Education

WHY THIS FABULOUS INVENTION MAY MATTER TO PEOPLE WITH HIGH CHOLESTEROL

Coffee doesn’t contain cholesterol. Instead, coffee affects how your body produces cholesterol.

Several studies over the past decade have shown a link between coffee and cholesterol. According to one study, coffee oils (known as diterpenes) such as cafestol and kahweol are to blame. Coffee oils are naturally found in caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee.

Research indicates that cafestol affects the body’s ability to metabolize and regulate cholesterol.

Coffee oils are most potent in coffees where the grounds have the longest contact with the water during brewing. A French press, which brews coffee by continually passing water through the grounds, has been shown to have greater concentrations of cafestol. Brewing in an American-style coffee pot with a filter, on the other hand, has relatively low levels, as the beverage is only passed through the grounds once. Most of the cafestol is left behind in the filter no matter what the roast. Another study found that Turkish-style simmered coffee and Scandinavian-style boiled coffee had the highest amount of diterpenes. Instant coffee and drip-brewed coffee had “negligible” amounts, and espresso had intermediate amounts.

Research has shown that drinking five cups of coffee daily from a French press brewing method can increase blood cholesterol levels by 6 to 8 percent.

dievca is rethinking her French Press usage…

Thank you to Healthline.com