jherm77 wrote:This whole thread has me shaking my head. Apparently a lot of people stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Better put...Over-analyzation

Agreed. With so many factors I hardly would think that stopping coffee consumption would produce any meaningful or even measurable results. Especially if ones consumption is well within "moderation" limits.

Sure if I was drinking 2 or 3 pots a day I'd cut back, but a few shots or mugs?

See a doctor, explore your options and for Pete's sakes utilize modern medicine if it comes to that.

Skepticism is a Good Thing, especially when it comes to dietary recommendations. But I repeat, there is cause for concern for us espresso lovers:

Cafestol, a diterpene present in unfiltered coffee brews such as Scandinavian boiled, Turkish, and cafetière coffee, is the most potent cholesterol-elevating compound known in the human diet.

Abstract from Ricketts et al., "The cholesterol-raising factor from coffee beans, cafestol, as an agonist ligand for the farnesoid and pregnane X receptors.", Mol Endocrinol. 2007 Jul;21(7):1603-16.

Now y'all can go back to discussing soy milk and flax seed, and ignore a potentially inconvenient truth. Me, I plan to keep monitoring this topic closely.

From one of the studies I posted:
"CONCLUSIONS: The responses of total and LDL cholesterol to coffee oil were poorly reproducible within subjects."

There's so much we don't, and are unable to at the moment, know. For instance, caffeine increases the risk of heart attacks in some individuals but reduces the risk in others and only genetic testing shows this:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1652 ... stractPlus

"CONCLUSION: Intake of coffee was associated with an increased risk of nonfatal MI only among individuals with slow caffeine metabolism, suggesting that caffeine plays a role in this association."

Slow caffeine metabolism? You won't know unless you find a lab able to test such a thing.

drdna wrote:Well, what I am going to do is to filter my espresso with standard paper coffee filters.

I'm still new to the art, but I think this will significantly alter the taste by filtering out crema and undisolved solids. Then again, you might not notice it in a milk drink.

Problem with this approach is that it won't reveal if there was a one-time anomaly in the test results. If you filter and the cholesterol level drops, you might reasonably conclude that something in the unfiltered coffee elevated your cholesterol. But it may have had nothing to do with coffee at all -- it could have been something affecting your system the day you took the first test.

I like the advice to 1) don't change anything and get your cholesterol checked again (say, a month after the first test). If the level is the same, then I would either filter the espresso, or cut it out altogether, and get another test in a month. I think cutting out espresso and milk (soy or otherwise) is the best approach if you can stand it for a month.

BTW, after reading your personal stats and dietary habits above, I'm impressed and envious. But with a profile like that, I would think your cholesterol level would be very low indeed. Again, genetics could be playing a bigger part than diet. If that's the case, my understanding is that statins may be the only remedy.

Isn't OCD a producer of stress?

I think I mentioned the flavor of the filtered espresso was much more like drip coffee. It's not bad, but I happen to like filter coffee and I happen to like the pastel hues painted on the canvas of my palate by aged green beans.

It is actually very easy to filter the espresso. A #2 filter fits nicely in a coffee mug. I simply put the filter in the mug, extract, discard the filter, and add my steamed milk.

RapidCoffee wrote:Skepticism is a Good Thing, especially when it comes to dietary recommendations. But I repeat, there is cause for concern for us espresso lovers:Abstract from Ricketts et al., "The cholesterol-raising factor from coffee beans, cafestol, as an agonist ligand for the farnesoid and pregnane X receptors.", Mol Endocrinol. 2007 Jul;21(7):1603-16.

This is probably the kernel: I think some of us may be more sensitive to the effects of espresso than others. If you drink a lot of espresso, it is worth getting your cholesterol checked.

I used to melt cheese on all my fried foods, and then butter them. For good measure I'd wash them down with heavy cream, and kill the potential for heartburn with whip-cream covered ice cream. My fruit intake was in tropical drinks and banana splits. 'Cause once a medical person told me I wouldn't ever have to worry about being over-weight or high blood pressure. Ever.
Then one doc said, "Hey, you're looking like your cholesterol is starting to get a bit on the high side."
So I started biking a bit more, and started taking it easy on the butter, the cream, the whip cream, the eggs, yada yada yada.
Then he said, "Wow, you're cholesterol went up!" So I started drinking two-percent, cut out almost all the eggs, ate fake cheese, fat-free yoghurt instead of ice cream or sour cream, fat free this, and that, and gave up breve's altogether. Half of my meat intake had wings and feathers on it. I am down to about six smokes a week. And I roll my own tobacco, to avoid the twenty-seven chemicals that are added to pre-rolled tobacco.
"Ohh, your cholesterol gets any higher, we're gonna have to put you on statins!"
So, I fence more, bike more, work out, eat rocks and twigs, and I've gotten down to two ounces of milk (two-percent), three at the most, in a cappu.
My new doc said that there is no way I can get by without statins.
My Aunt's cholesterol level is 370. In Northern France, 400 isn't uncommon (and they're considered, other than those labs, to be healthy...)
I kinda laughed when she suggested that I try changing my diet and exercise program. When she asked me why, I told her that I'd been changing it all along, and with every change I made, my cholesterol level went higher.
So, I've decided that I'm going to live a good life, with a good diet that includes the (very) occasional filet wrapped in bacon, or fish fried in butter, or decadent desert, and definitely includes two or three doppio a day, some of them drowned in a few ounces of frothed milk.
And I take my statins before bed every night.
There is a certain comfort to be had in knowing that I'm no longer 'batting' my cholesterol. I'm going to live my life, and if I die of a heart attack living with conservative but enjoyable diet, I'll call that a deal.

Adrian, have you looked at red yeast rice? We have got high cholesterol levels in our family, and my Mum was able to cut her levels down by eating red rice pills.

I know a guy who consumes enormous quantities of saturated fat. Intentionally. His HDL is 133 mg/dl and is only this way because of his saturated fat intake:
http://freetheanimal.com/2009/03/new-lipid-panel.html

There are also studies that show it's likely inflammation causing increases in cholesterol, not the cholesterol itself. Lowering carb into + increasing cholesterol intake = reduced blood cholesterol:
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/138/2/272

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1828 ... d_RVDocSum

More food for thought.

So, that guy with the 133 HDL uses coconut milk a lot...makes sauces etc,...and it sounds like he is on a mostly paleo type diet...I suppose using coconut milk in coffee/capps may help too. Many brands have the sodium metabisulfite in them as a preservative; Thai Kitchen and Natural Value brands don't. (I don't believe soy milk is a good or healthy choice.)

Stanner wrote:I know a guy who consumes enormous quantities of saturated fat. Intentionally.

Let us not forget that an increase in saturated fat is consistently associated with increased heart disease, regardless of cholesterol numbers. Time and again, the introduction of a Westernized diet high in saturated fats has led to the emergence of heart disease in populations of indigenous and native peoples.

This brings into serious question various diets like the Atkins Diet, the Paleo Diet (?), etc that promote a high fat carnivorous diet. These diets force weight loss through ketosis, but may not provide long term health benefits. As I said, retrospective studies on numerous populations have shown a strong correlation between fat intake and heart disease regardless of cholesterol measurements. Further, human dentition strongly suggests an omnivorous diet. If observation of indigenous peoples and non-human primate populations are any indication, humans likely evolved as scavengers and foragers not as carnivores. Beyond that, the earliest recorded history from 10,000 years ago basically documents agriculture. As whimsical as the idea of the caveman with a club hunting the wild mastodon might be, it seems the truth may be a bit less toothsome.