The great coffee question has to do with whether the delicious beverage protects or harms the body. Furthermore, the debate involves whether the health-enhancing or health-damaging elements are related to the coffee itself, caffeine, or the creamers and sugar added to each cup. While the speculation might come to a halt there, the coffee debate should include one more element – the potential benefits of using coffee filters. The primary purpose of a coffee filter is to prevent the grounds from falling into your morning jet fuel. However, simple paper filters provide a number of added health benefits, so here are some of the benefits of coffee filters.
Key Benefit of Using Coffee Filters
During the brewing process, coffee filters trap an oily substance in coffee called diterpenes. There are two main types of diterpenes in coffee – cafestol and kahweol. These oily substances enter your morning cup of coffee via the coffee grounds floating in the coffee or the oily droplets that accumulate on the surface. When consumed, these oily compounds block receptors in your intestines that regulate cholesterol. Due to this obstruction, the intestines can’t properly regulate the amount of cholesterol absorbed and excreted. This results in elevated levels of blood cholesterol. The key benefit of using coffee filters here is that they capture cafestol and kahweol and decrease the risk of coffee-related cholesterol increases.
Coffee and Cholesterol
A Science Daily article from 2007 suggests that drinking five cups of unfiltered coffee each day for four weeks could increase cholesterol levels by 6-8%. Obviously, five cups per day is a lot of coffee. However, it’s still worth considering if you’re making your morning cup of coffee without a filter. Cafestol is especially rich in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. When too much LDL cholesterol collects in our blood, it forms a hard plaque along the inner walls of your blood vessels. This plaque makes it challenging for blood to flow, which, in turn, increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes.
Filter Types
Paper filters are more effective at eliminating diterpenes than permanent or cloth filters. Furthermore, paper filters are also far easier to clean up since you simply dispose of them after you use them. Cloth and permanent filters, on the other hand, require cleaning after every use. Paper filters aren’t exactly environmentally friendly, but they are biodegradable. If you’re looking to make paper filters more environmentally friendly, you should add them to your compost pile along with your used coffee grounds. Make sure to purchase the brown filters and avoid the bleached white filters if you plan to add your used paper filters to your compost pile.
Other Benefits of Paper Coffee Filters
While permanent and cloth coffee filters only serve one purpose, paper filters are far more versatile. You can use paper coffee filters to clean windows and mirrors for a lint-free finish. You can also use them as spacers between fine china to prevent scratches. If you really want to think outside the box, you can poke a hole through a coffee filter and place it onto a popsicle stick or ice cream cone to prevent messy drips. Lastly, you can use paper coffee filters to strain wine when a cork has broken and fallen into the bottle!
