| There has been a lot of talk recently about how | | | | disappointing as I personally have always consumed |
| coffee seems to raise our cholesterol levels. And I | | | | my coffee in the form of espresso. Not anymore, I |
| am referring to the LDL (aka ‘bad’) | | | | like it iced, so rather than an Americano I get an iced |
| cholesterol levels. After doing some research on my | | | | coffee. |
| own I have found some pretty interesting things as | | | | Another thing to point out are the other factors that |
| well as some tips on how to lower your risk of heart | | | | also may contribute to higher cholesterol levels and |
| disease and/or higher cholesterol levels due to coffee. | | | | those could be genetics, sugars in the coffee drinks |
| First thing’s first, research has shown that it is | | | | and other habits such as smoking. All of these |
| not just any cup of coffee that raises a | | | | factors would have to be considered as well if a |
| person’s cholesterol levels, but it is mostly due | | | | person was going to do an in-depth analysis on |
| to unfiltered coffee such as French press coffee and | | | | whether or not they should give up coffee versus |
| espresso. | | | | smoking or something. The frozen coffee beverages, |
| Many people may choose to automatically blame this | | | | to me, resemble a dessert in many cases. On top of |
| issue on the caffeine in the coffee, but that would | | | | it all they contain espresso, which by the way does |
| not be the right assumption. The reason coffee has | | | | not use a paper filter. Espresso uses a steel filter in |
| the ability to raise our cholesterol levels is because of | | | | many cases so a lot of the oils will be pushed right |
| oils called terpenes found in coffee. These oils are | | | | through when preparing that heavenly brew. So, one |
| easily filtered out with our normal paper filters. | | | | thing to remember from all of this is that if a person |
| However, just make sure that those filters are not | | | | would like to lower their chances of raising their |
| the ones with extra ‘aroma’ holes plugged | | | | cholesterol due to coffee, then stick to filtered |
| throughout them as these will raise your chances of | | | | coffee and try best to avoid the unfiltered coffees |
| consuming the terpene oils that can potentially be | | | | and, unfortunately, the espresso beverages. |
| harmful. Now, all of this at first seemed very | | | | |