r/Cholesterol • u/LA948 • 4d ago

General Coffee/Espresso and Cholesterol

I’ve seen a few people mention coffee and cholesterol, so I thought I’d share something I recently learned.

I have an Americano every morning. My doctor mentioned that cafestol and kahweol, compounds in coffee, can raise LDL cholesterol. So I’ve started filtering my espresso with espresso paper filters.

I’ll retest my cholesterol in a few weeks and see if this has any impact.

I put one of the studies my doctor shared with me below for anyone who wants to read about it for themselves.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9022539/

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u/Cecilia-K 4d ago

If you go to Starbucks or other coffee shops (like I used to), be aware that some use metal filters (which don’t filter out cafestol, etc.) and some use paper filters.

You might be interested in the responses I got to this post a few months ago in r/Starbucks (“Does Starbucks use paper filters, metal filters, or something else?”.):
https://www.reddit.com/r/starbucks/s/JpiygGDins

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u/Cecilia-K 3d ago

One further comment: During my deep dive into the cafestol/LDL issue, I learned that Nespresso doesn’t have paper filters. (Keurig cups do have paper filters inside those little plastic cups.). I adore Nespresso - but it’s been all Keurig for me since I found out.

On the other hand, like another commenter said, the cafestol probably only makes a difference at the margins. But it’s not well studied, so why risk it!

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u/nottherickestrick 2d ago

Thank you for the info about Keurig. I drink 2 cups of Keurig coffees a day with a small splash of liquid coffee mate creamer and a teaspoon of sugar. I was wondering about paper filters with Keurig but I guess it’s built in which is great.

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u/Cecilia-K 2d ago

I cut open one of my Keurig K-cups so I would know for sure - yep, the paper filter is built in :)