There has been a lot of talk recently about how coffee seems to raise our cholesterol levels. And I am referring to the LDL (aka 'bad') cholesterol levels. After doing some research on my own I have found some pretty interesting things as well as some tips on how to lower your risk of heart disease and/or higher cholesterol levels due to coffee. First thing's first, research has shown that it is not just any cup of coffee that raises a person's cholesterol levels, but it is mostly due to unfiltered coffee such as French press coffee and espresso.



Many people may choose to automatically blame this issue on the caffeine in the coffee, but that would not be the right assumption. The reason coffee has the ability to raise our cholesterol levels is because of oils called terpenes found in coffee. These oils are easily filtered out with our normal paper filters. However, just make sure that those filters are not the ones with extra 'aroma' holes plugged throughout them as these will raise your chances of consuming the terpene oils that can potentially be harmful. Now, all of this at first seemed very disappointing as I personally have always consumed my coffee in the form of espresso. Not anymore, I like it iced, so rather than an Americano I get an iced coffee.

Another thing to point out are the other factors that also may contribute to higher cholesterol levels and those could be genetics, sugars in the coffee drinks and other habits such as smoking. All of these factors would have to be considered as well if a person was going to do an in-depth analysis on whether or not they should give up coffee versus smoking or something. The frozen coffee beverages, to me, resemble a dessert in many cases. On top of it all they contain espresso, which by the way does not use a paper filter. Espresso uses a steel filter in many cases so a lot of the oils will be pushed right through when preparing that heavenly brew. So, one thing to remember from all of this is that if a person would like to lower their chances of raising their cholesterol due to coffee, then stick to filtered coffee and try best to avoid the unfiltered coffees and, unfortunately, the espresso beverages.