Friday, November 18, 2005
Study Questions Health Effects of Decaf
A new study finds slight a increase in fatty acids in participants who consumed decaf coffee.
DALLAS - Fresh questions are percolating about the health effects of coffee, this time the decaffeinated variety. One of the first substantial studies to test it like a drug instead of just asking people how much of it they consumed found higher blood levels of cholesterol-precursor fats in those drinking decaf vs. regular coffee or none at all.
But the differences were very small, especially when compared with the effects of, say, the doughnut that might be dunked into the brew.
"I don't think there's a health threat," regardless of which type of coffee is consumed, said Dr. H. Robert Superko of Fuqua Heart Center in Atlanta, who did the study when previously at Stanford University. He reported on it Wednesday at an
American Heart Association conference.
The 187 volunteers were put into three groups: no coffee, 3 to 6 cups a day of regular, or 3 to 6 cups of decaf. Coffee was consumed black, no cream or sugar. Diet surveys were taken for a week at the beginning and the end so researchers could evaluate whether changes in eating habits might have affected results.
The result: decaf drinkers had modestly higher levels — 8 to 18 percent — of fatty acids and precursors of LDL or bad cholesterol than the others.
DALLAS - Fresh questions are percolating about the health effects of coffee, this time the decaffeinated variety. One of the first substantial studies to test it like a drug instead of just asking people how much of it they consumed found higher blood levels of cholesterol-precursor fats in those drinking decaf vs. regular coffee or none at all.
But the differences were very small, especially when compared with the effects of, say, the doughnut that might be dunked into the brew.
"I don't think there's a health threat," regardless of which type of coffee is consumed, said Dr. H. Robert Superko of Fuqua Heart Center in Atlanta, who did the study when previously at Stanford University. He reported on it Wednesday at an
American Heart Association conference.
The 187 volunteers were put into three groups: no coffee, 3 to 6 cups a day of regular, or 3 to 6 cups of decaf. Coffee was consumed black, no cream or sugar. Diet surveys were taken for a week at the beginning and the end so researchers could evaluate whether changes in eating habits might have affected results.
The result: decaf drinkers had modestly higher levels — 8 to 18 percent — of fatty acids and precursors of LDL or bad cholesterol than the others.
