COFFEE AND CHOLESTEROL

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Thursday, April 2, 2009 | 5:36 am

Reports about coffee and its effects upon the level of cholesterol in the blood have been alarmingly contradictory, j Some researchers find that coffee, even in moderate amounts, raises cholesterol blood levels and thereby increases the risk of both heart attack and stroke. Others are unable to see any of these effects. Now, according to the Lancet (2:1283), there may be an explanation for these conflicting results.

The conflict began with a study by researchers in Norway in which they found that coffee drinking raised the blood levels of both cholesterol and fat. Furthermore, they discovered, the effect grew stronger the more cups of coffee the subjects’ consumed. In light of that, the New England Journal of Medicine (308:1454) said that heavy coffee drinkers probably at least incur double the risk of coronary artery disease. However, researchers in this country were unable to confirm these conclusions.

A new report says that the difference may lie in the variations in the methods by which the coffee was prepared for drinking. If coffee is made by boiling (as it was in the Norwegian study), there is a cholesterol-raising effect. In contrast, when our coffee is prepared by filtration (as it usually is nowadays in the U.S.A.), no bad effect on the blood cholesterol or the cardiovascular system is to be seen. Possibly, however, when we percolate coffee, although this is not proven, we may be producing at least some of the same undesirable effects as we would do if we boiled it.

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