Is French Press Coffee Bad For You?

I love my Bodum French press coffee maker. However, I’ve been alerted that it may not be the best way to brew my coffee, even though it tastes delicious. Here’s what I asked and what I found out.

coffee-french-press

Why is French press coffee bad for you?

It could potentially raise your cholesterol.

How does French press coffee raise cholesterol?

There is a compound in coffee called cafestol (a type of terpene), and cafestol stimulates the production of LDL (the bad cholesterol) in your body. Fortunately, cafestol exists only in the oily part of the coffee bean, and is thus filtered out… when you use a paper filter. The cafestol (and the oil) get left in the paper and you get left with a clean & steaming hot mug of joe (when you use a paper filter). Now – when you prepare coffee without a paper filter, such as

  1. Making coffee with a French press (there is a filter but it is a metal mesh and does not collect the cafestol / oily part),
  2. By boiling the ground beans (Scandinavian tradition or Turkish coffee), or
  3. By making espresso (less cafestol than French press, but more than regular filtered coffee)

…You unfortunately retain the cafestol. Wuh wuh 🙁 And by retaining and ingesting the cafestol, you might be telling your body to increase production of LDL. Oops.

Here is a cafestol molecule! (I have forgotten everything I ever learned in honors chem over 10 years ago. My hubby took chem and orgo in college though, so maybe I should ask him what this means.)

cafestol-molecule

Wait though – this cafestol/cholesterol stuff might not be so bad. If you already have high cholesterol, you should definitely avoid the risk of increasing it further, so drink paper filtered coffee (not French press, boiled, or espresso). If your cholesterol is normal, you are probably OK to drink French press coffee in moderation or on special occasions. Maybe save the French press for the weekends and enjoy drip (filtered) coffee during the week. (Instant is also fine; I don’t drink it but if you do, you don’t have to worry about cafestol.)

While I was doing all this coffee research, I discovered that French press coffee is actually kind of dirty! The mesh filter lets a lot of sediment through and into your cup (which I always end up drinking). This makes me think paper filtered coffee has potential to taste better. I think the reason paper filtered coffee gets a bad rap is because most of the time it’s made with stale beans. I bet if I start making regular paper filtered coffee with freshly ground beans (ground in this inexpensive but effective burr coffee grinder) it will taste even better than French press. Here are the coffee machines I’m debating between (I don’t have a coffee maker at the moment except for the French press).

  1. Cuisinart CHW-12 Coffee Plus 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker with Hot Water System, Black/Stainless –> This one is $99, and it’s basically like #2 except you can make hot water with it too. I’m leaning towards this one. Has good reviews (4/5 stars out of 651 reviews – very good actually).
  2. Cuisinart DCC-1200 Brew Central 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, Black/Brushed Metal –> This one is $75. It’s simple and basic and also has good reviews (4/5 stars out of 3.431 reviews).
  3. Bonavita BV1800TH 8-Cup Coffee Maker with Thermal Carafe –> At $150, it’s the priciest one I’m considering, but it has over 4.5/5 stars (out of 346 reviews), has precision programming to perfect the temperature of water and the contact time between water and grounds. It’s also pretty.

What are your thoughts? Do you drink French press coffee or normal, paper filtered drip coffee? What’s your favorite brand of coffee and how many cups a day do you drink?  How do you have your coffee?

stumptown-coffee-bar

(Source)

  • I usually drink French press when I’m at home; I drink whatever when I’m out (I like Americano = espresso + water; or regular drip is OK when made with good beans)
  • My 2 favorite brands of coffee are Stumptown and Intelligentsia.
  • I drink 1-2 cups a day – never more than 2 regular, though sometimes I will have a decaf at night or in the afternoon. So if you include decaf – 1-3. (Health benefits/risks of decaf coffee to come in another post.)
  • I drink my coffee with milk (whole or half & half) + NuNaturals stevia.

*For more details about coffee + cholesterol, check out this article. I got a lot of my info there but I did not include everything.

**There are some affiliate links in this post (for Amazon). Just FYI! I try to be honest here, and if I am going to be honest I barely make anything off of the blog, even with affiliate links. 🙂

A Spiced Rice Obsession

Do you remember this “Indian rice” recipe I made a few months ago? I almost forgot about it until this week. Then I made a variation of it and now I’m obsessed again. It is just so good. Eating rice (spiced rice!) just makes me happy.

Here is my new variation, and the new ways I’ve been enjoying it:

Obsession-Inducing Spiced Rice

Ingredients

  • 1 cup rice of choice (this week: brown basmati (1x) and short grain white (1x))
  • water (1:1 ratio for white rice; 2 cups water to 1 cup rice for brown)
  • 2 heaping tablespoons of ghee (butter works too) (or if you are vegan use peanut/sesame oil)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2+ teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2+ teaspoon dill
  • 1/4 cup raisins

Method

  1. Soak raisins in hot water until plump. Chop in small pieces.
  2. Put all ingredients in rice cooker, mix, press start.
  3. (Alternately, you can cook rice on the stove, the normal way…)
  4. Serve with peanut butter.
  5. Or serve with yogurt.
  6. Or however else you choose.

My dessert one night: peanut buttery brown basmati rice concoction (just basmati obsession-rice + heaping spoonfuls of peanut butter):

And a breakfast of: yogurty short-grain white rice mix (obsession-inducing white rice + 2% greek yogurt + NuNaturals cocoa bean extract) (enter my NuNaturals giveaway here):

The rice comes out nice and chewy and flavorful. I will definitely keep making it!

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Don’t forget about my NuNaturals giveaway! It ends Saturday.

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Teaser:

White obsession-rice over a mystery salad… can you guess what’s in that lunch bowl of yum?

NuNaturals Giveaway (#2)! Free Stevia!

Happy Mother’s day! I spent yesterday with my mom instead of today, and it we had a wonderful time 🙂 We got mani/pedis and went out for brunch in Brooklyn. I love you mom!

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for entering!

Winners Here.

My last NuNaturals giveaway was so successful that NuNaturals is letting me do another one! I have demolished the sampler pack they sent me – gotta get some more. This time around NuNaturals actually has a 3-part program for you, with part 1 being the giveaway. Keep reading to enter!

What is Stevia?

Stevia is an all-natural zero-calorie sweetener (made from the leaf of the Stevia Rebaudiana plant) that has been used around the world (Japan, Brazil and South America, Korea, Europe, etc…). It is much sweeter than sugar and some brands taste bitter… But not NuNaturals. NuNaturals’ stevia is not bitter at all from what I can tell. What stevia is not: aspartame, splenda, or any of those other awful sweeteners. (Stevia has really helped me wean me off of them. Remember my healthy diet soda?)

NuNaturals Stevia Giveaway

Part (1): This giveaway will have FOUR (4) winners. Each winner will receive one (1) box of NuStevia Packets, 50 ct. Box, AND one (1) bottle of NuNaturals Vanilla Stevia Liquid, 2 oz. bottle. The contest is open to Continental U.S. residents ONLY.

To enter (1 entry each, please leave 1 comment for each entry – 5 possible entry options):

Giveaway now closed.

Start date: today, Sunday, May 8th

End Date: Saturday, May 14th, at midnight (Eastern time)

More Free Stevia Goodies!

Part (2): IN ADDITION, NuNaturals now has a “FREE SAMPLES” program for ALL Continental U.S. readers. You can receive FREE SAMPLES of NuStevia Packets by sending a SELF-ADDRESSED, STAMPED, #10 envelope to the following location:

NuNaturals , Inc.
2220 West 2nd. Ave. #1
Eugene, OR 97402

Stevia Discounts

Part (3):  PLUS, ALL readers can take full advantage of SPECIAL DISCOUNTS on all future orders by ordering through the NuNaturals website: www.nunaturals.com.

When you go to the website checkout page, simply enter this CODE: BLG531, for a SPECIAL DISCOUNT of -15% on your TOTAL ORDER. And don’t forget, by ordering from the website you ALSO receive FREE SHIPPING to the Continental U.S. on all orders totaling $35.00 and over (AFTER this special discount).

This offer is EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, and ENDS MAY 31, 2011.

Hope you enjoy! Please enter! Do you like stevia?