Coffee from office machines could risk your heart health: study

Maybe it's wise to avoid the office coffee machine these days — but not because it tastes less than wonderful. 

A study done in Sweden investigated the levels of certain substances in coffee prepared in workplace coffee machines versus traditional brewing techniques.

Researchers concluded that drinking poorly filtered coffee such as the kind often found in workplace machines could be an overlooked factor in heart health issues due to certain cholesterol concentrations.

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The substances - cafestol and kahweol - are linked to elevated levels of LDL cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, sometimes called "bad cholesterol"). 

High levels of this cholesterol can cause plaque build-up in the arteries and lead to heart disease, stroke and other health problems by narrowing arteries and restricting blood flow, according to the Cleveland Clinic website.

Researchers from Uppsala University examined 14 different coffee machines in workplaces in Sweden, in collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology. 

They compared the coffee from these machines to coffee produced using home-brewing methods such as paper filters and French presses.

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The study, published in the journal Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases, concluded that coffee from most office coffee machines contains high levels of the two cholesterol-elevating substances relative to the amount found in regular drip-filter coffee setups.

"From this, we infer that the filtering process is crucial for the presence of these cholesterol-elevating substances in coffee. Obviously, not all coffee machines manage to filter them out," lead researcher David Iggman said in a news release.

"But the problem varies between different types of coffee machines, and the concentrations also showed large variations over time." 

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In the case of high variations between tests from the same coffee machines, a possible factor could be the way cleaning schedules impact how porous the machine's filters are. 

Cleaning a metal filter could wear them down and make them less effective in filtering out certain substances, the study said.

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Machines in the study used five regular brands of ground coffee. Researchers took samples from the coffee made by the machines on a number of separate occasions and analyzed the contents.

There was a big difference between the machines in terms of the levels of cafestol and kahweol in the coffee they made — but the levels could also differ at different times.

"For people who drink a lot of coffee every day, it's clear that drip-filter coffee, or other well-filtered coffee, is preferable," Iggman said.

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"Most of the coffee samples contained levels that could feasibly affect the levels of LDL cholesterol of people who drank the coffee, as well as their future risk of cardiovascular disease."

While the researchers also examined espresso from varying machines, there was a considerable and unexplained variation in cafestol and kahweol concentration between four samples tested.

"This needs further study but may be of importance for regular espresso consumers," according to the published findings.