Aaron Hartman, MD explains that coffee beans from humid, low-altitude regions like Costa Rica can develop mold, while higher-altitude processing in places like Antigua, Guatemala reduces it. Mold can turn coffee from beneficial to neurotoxic and cardiotoxic.
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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.