Aaron Hartman, MD breaks down coffee's health claims: phytochemicals lower cardiovascular and Alzheimer's risk, but dark roasting destroys antioxidants and creates harmful compounds. About 5% of people have a genetic variant that slows caffeine processing and may raise heart-disease risk. Mold contamination and added flavor enhancers like MSG are also concerns.
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Today we're going to talk about coffee, one of many people's favorite superfood. But is it really that super? The reason I'm actually talking about this, I've had multiple patients ask me over the last couple of weeks about coffee and other superfoods controversies. Is it good for you? Is it bad for you? All these kind of things. And so we're going to dive into that a little bit. The concept of a superfood, they apply across all these different things. The things that are supposed to have super high nutrient value for your health that sometimes if done the right way, can be really beneficial. If done the wrong way, can be detrimental. That's the general concept I want to talk about while we talk about coffee, which is my personal favorite superfood. So there's some controversy behind coffee. Is it good for you? Is it bad for you? What makes it good? What makes it bad? Well, these certain chemicals or phytochemicals that are in coffee that have been associated with lower risk for cardiovascular disease as well as lowering your risk for Alzheimer's, which is really important. Dr. Dale Brinson, who's one of the top Alzheimer's researchers in our country, actually uses coffee, green coffee bean extracts to help the neurological function of his Alzheimer's patients. So these are all good things about coffee, right? Coffee also has some positive impacts on your gut microbiome or the bacteria in your gut. The chemicals in coffee, the caffeic acids, if you ever kind of make coffee and you see the little fatty layer on top, the those things are actually fat soluble nutrients can actually be really helpful for your gut microbiome and the bacteria in your gut. So between some of the gut things, the antioxidant effects of coffee, is it a superfood? Is it really that amazing? Then why do people talk about coffee being bad for you, increasing your risk for health issues? A lot of this goes around how coffee is made and produced. One of the first things about coffee is you have to roast it right well, your really deep dark roast of coffee, that burning aspect or toasting actually if you do it too much, you can actually make these things called advanced glycation end products called ages. It's basically burnt coffee. One of the most popular places in the country, Starbucks actually does that on purpose to make their coffee last longer and store longer in bins and shelves and things like that. But that burning process actually removes all the antioxidants that people talk about with coffee being healthy and actually put these inflammatory molecules in there. So the superfood actually becomes inflammatory. Another thing that happens in the coffee process is that things like MSG are put into the coffee to actually have a flavor enhancement. Now, some of you may have heard the term umami and certain Asian cultures and restaurants, etc. Umami is a spice they put in, which is just msg. Did you know that? Right. And so a lot of coffee manufacturers and another one in Starbucks I've mentioned before, they actually will do this as a flavor enhancement. So many of you already know about msg, monocytum glutamate, how it's neuroinflammatory, it's inflammatory for your brain, not necessarily good for you. People with migraines, the MSG really can activate their migraines. This is actually put as a flavor enhancer in some types of brands of coffee. The other thing about coffee that can be negative for your health is actually if coffee comes from a certain place in the world, certain places in Costa Rica, for example, where it's humid, it's hot, you actually get a lot of mold in your coffee. And many of you probably know how bad mold is for you. So if you have a coffee bean that's dried or processed, say in Antigua, Guatemala, at higher altitude, they actually won't have as much mold in the actual coffee bean proper. So all of a sudden, now this superfood healthy thing that lowers your risk for Alzheimer's, has a positive impact on your heart, has good chemicals for your gut bacteria, now is neurotoxic, bad for your heart, and has mold stuff in it. So the concept of superfoods is that even though you have something that's really great for you, we can do bad things with it. The last thing there is a gene called a snp, a small nucleotide polymorphism, fancy word for genetic defect that 5% of the population has that actually makes them susceptible to caffeine. They're slow acetylators, they're slow detoxifiers of caffeine, and they're more prone to actually the side effects of coffee. And. And that small subset of the population also, if they have coffee, can actually increase the risk for heart disease. So again, it's kind of weird if you're not that 5% coffee can be good for your heart. If you get good coffee that's not moldy, it can be good for you. If the coffee is a light or mild roast, not a darker French roast, you still have those antioxidant properties in there. So I'm going to go through superfoods, just finish talking about coffee, talk about other ones. If you have ones you want to know about, I I'd be happy to take that input and dive into those as well. This was spurred, actually, by a patient asking me a question the other day about coffee. We talked about a little bit. I thought that'd be helpful to discuss here for you all to look at, think about, listen, discuss, and let me know. What superfood do you think is healthy that might not be healthy for you? And would you like to hear me talk about it on these little brief lives? So let me know about that, and I'd love to share about my next superfood, which we'll talk about. And if you have one you'd like to learn about and know about the pluses and minuses for some of the controversies, let me know, and I'd love to share it. Take care. Talk to y' all soon.
