If You're Going To Drink Coffee, Make It Caffeinated

Many people reasonably opt for decaffeinated coffee due to allergies, increased anxiety, heart rate and nervousness. However, if you are avoiding the caffeine in coffee for reasons unrelated to negative symptoms, you're likely not doing your health any favors. Not only is decaffeinated coffee unnatural and highly processed, but is has also been found to increase blood lipids that raise the risk of heart disease.

Caffeinated coffee contains antioxidants that may offer cardiovascular protection, anti-cancer properties and even prevent diabetes, which is itself a major heart disease risk factor. But it also increases homocysteine levels and may have negative effects on the aorta. In general, when a risk factor has been carefully studied and the results flip back and forth like this, it often means that if there is any harm or benefit, it’s pretty minor.

Dangers of Decaf

On the other hand, the harm that comes from decaffeinated coffee is not so minor. Though decaf has been less studied than regular coffee, it too has been the focus of several health scares that have been conflicting in various studies. For instance, one study of women in Iowa found that those drinking four or more cups a day of decaf had an elevated risk of rheumatoid arthritis, however the results were not duplicated in other studies.

The expression "naturally decaffeinated" is a bit of a misnomer. If something normally has caffeine it in, there is nothing natural about the removal of the caffeine, nor is the removal ever complete. There is always some caffeine left over after the process. In order for coffee to qualify as decaffeinated, it must have at least 97 percent of its caffeine removed. An eight-ounce cup of decaf coffee would have no more than 5 or fewer milligrams of caffeine (compared to the range of 40 - 180 mg. typically found in one eight-ounce cup of brewed, dripped, or percolated java).

Coffee beans are decaffeinated by softening the beans with water and using a substance to extract the caffeine. In one process, coffee beans are soaked in water to soften them and dissolve the caffeine. The water containing the caffeine (and the flavor from the beans) is treated with a solvent, heated to remove the solvent and caffeine, and then returned to the beans. The flavors in the water are reabsorbed by the beans, which are then dried. The most widely used solvent today is artificially produced ethyl acetate. When your coffee label states that the beans are "naturally decaffeinated," it is referring to this process, specifically using ethyl acetate. Although it doesn't sound like a natural process, it can be labeled as such because the solvent occurs in nature (even if it is produced in a lab). Other solvents have been used, some of which have been shown to be harmful. One, methylene chloride, has been alleged to cause cancer in humans and therefore is not often used, but beware of decaf coffee imported from other countries who are unregulated.

Another method uses a direct decaffeination process involving the use of carbon dioxide as a solvent. The coffee beans are soaked in compressed CO2, which removes 97 percent of the caffeine. The solvent containing the extracted caffeine evaporates when the beans return to room temperature, although some critics claim the solvent residue remains in the coffee beans in trace amounts.

If you are going to drink decaffeinated coffee, the "Swiss Water Process" is a patented method and is the best choice. It in involves another indirect method of soaking the beans in water to soften them and remove the caffeine, and then runs the liquid through activated charcoal or carbon filters to decaffeinate it. The flavor containing fluid is then returned to the beans to be dried. If your coffee is labeled naturally Swiss water processed, you can be assured that no harmful chemicals are used. If you are uncertain, you can ask or call your coffee processor to learn about the method used.

Researchers have also found that the diabetes protective effects of decaf are less than caffeinated beans and they have also found a link between decaf and increased blood lipids that raise the risk of heart disease.

When you remove part of nature, there is always a consequence.

Why It's Important To Select Only Organic Coffee

The coffee plant is one of the most heavily sprayed crops. It's coated with chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides, nothing you'd want to be ingesting. These chemicals then leech into the ground water and make people sick in local areas where coffee is grown.

Even though many chemicals that have been found to be harmful to the environment have been banned or are strictly regulated in the U.S. or Europe, they remain legal to use in less-developed countries, including many countries that grow coffee.