Coffee is life, so they say. Colleen Frankhart in rush.edu/news summarizes the benefits derived from pure regular coffee to include improvement of overall health, protection against diabetes and liver diseases, control of Parkinson disease symptoms, slowing progress of dementia, and lower risk to melanoma and death. But this is for freshly brewed coffee, no sweetener and should be the preference among coffee drinkers. It provides the stimulant searched for in a coffee drink and gives the drinker the choice to add sugar, milk or creamer at a quantity he/she so desires. Very recently, Jeon et.al reported that unblended ground coffee from the market as good quality coffee based caffeine/chlorogenic acid (CGA) ratio. Note however coffee is not recommended for children. Also, caffeine is contraindicated when one has insomnia, gastroesophageal reflux disease, osteoporosis. In fact, once can adopt healthier alternatives to coffee.
What about instant coffee, dubbed as the most popular coffee in the world and which is advantageous only in terms of convenience or when you don’t have a coffee brewer? It is made by brewing the ground roasted coffee to create a concentrated version or extract. The extract is then dehydrated either through spray drying in which the coffee extract is sprayed into air, or through freeze drying in which the extract is frozen then cut into small fragments that are dried at a low temperature. While instant coffee has long shelf life, affords convenience and may have some of the benefits of regular coffee, its caffeine content is much less than regular coffee. It has more acrylamide, reportedly even twice as that in regular coffee.
Then there is 3-in-1 coffee which has only 10% coffee and to which several additives had to be put to make a durable, consistent and tasty product that lasts a long time. Anyone can easily notice its being unhealthy from the ingredients listed in the packet. Food labeling requires that ingredients are listed in order from the greatest to least in quantity. Take time to read and first in the list is not coffee but sugar and/or glucose syrup which is highly processed, refined carbohydrate thus calorie-laden yet no vitamins nor minerals. It is easily absorbed leading to fast rise in blood sugar. A sachet may not really matter if one says the contents are just so little but frequent drinks in a day or merely daily drinks lead to excess calorie intake, weight gain, diseases of the heart and blood vessels and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Next in the ingredients is hydrogenated oil usually palm oil. Addition of hydrogen ions into the plant oil make it stable and improves product quality but creates trans fats, the worst form of fats and is associated with cardiovascular diseases. Several additives follow in the list to include sequestrants which prevent oxidation of fat; milk protein like caseinate, emulsifiers, anti-caking and bulking agents and sweeteners. All the additives unnecessarily consumed each time preference is put on ease in preparation rather than just mix coffee, sugar and milk. Because the very small amount of coffee will not be enough to stimulate, one tends to consume more sachets or cups, hence the accumulation of sugar, hardened fat and all the additives. All these make it an unhealthy choice. Coffeedesk.com says too.
Now, the choice is yours.
