Is coffee bad for cholesterol?
Coffee is a regular power booster for some people in the morning. It contains caffeine, which triggers the mind to be more active and attentive towards mental tasks specifically and everyday tasks in general. Whatever benefits it may offer, coffee is also considered to raise cholesterol levels in the body, which may create more problems for a considerable number of people.
Cholesterol has become one of the major health issues around the globe in recent years, but contrary to popular belief, cholesterol itself isn’t a negative thing.
It is a substance needed consistently in the body to produce some hormones that are essential for bodily functions. Important hormones like estrogen, cortisol, and testosterone are produced with the help of cholesterol. Due to its importance to the body, the body itself produces the required amount of cholesterol.
In addition to cholesterol made by our body, we get some from our diet too. Not every food contains cholesterol, so it is easy to limit the intake of such food items, which increases the level of cholesterol in the body. One such food is Coffee.
Coffee and Cholesterol
Coffee is taken all over the planet, but it has become a part of life for most Americans. There is a coffee shop on every street and every corner, which makes it difficult to avoid it. However, with cholesterol posing a serious health threat to our body, it is important to know about the effect of coffee on our body.
Basically, coffee is served in two main ways. One is filtered coffee, which is the most common form of coffee and is made by brewing the coffee through a filter. The other way to make coffee is by directly boiling it without any sort of filter involved in the whole process. This is called unfiltered coffee.
The most common form of unfiltered coffee is Espresso and French press coffees; however, Turkish coffee is also popular.
Upon thorough examination, the filtered coffee showed no direct link in raising the levels of cholesterol. Contrarily they almost remained unchanged. Filtered coffee might prove helpful in the prevention of many diseases like diabetes, Parkinson’s, or liver cancer, etc.
On the other hand, the unfiltered ‘Boiled’ coffee may affect your health by raining LDL or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, which is largely known as Bad Cholesterol, study shows.
Here are some points you must consider while consuming coffee if you are cholesterol conscious;
- If you intend to keep cholesterol levels low, drink filtered coffee only.
- Avoid extra things like cream sugars, chocolate, and caramel, etc. with your coffee.
- Keep checking and maintaining a record of your cholesterol levels.
- If you are sensitive to caffeine, take advice from your doctor before taking coffee.
