All right, coffee is known for its incredible health benefits all around the world and
it's something I drink every single day. First of all, coffee drinkers
around the world have some of the longest health spans and life spans
and have some of the best brain health and it's all because of the
polyphenol content in coffee. Now, I don't have to hopefully
tell you about polyphenols. But polyphenols are these amazing plant
compounds that have two really important effects. Number one, we've recently learned in
the last few years that our gut bacteria, our microbiome loves to eat polyphenols. So polyphenols are a prebiotic
that feeds friendly bacteria.
Number two, we have known for some time that polyphenols by themselves
are very poorly absorbed. Now, long ago, it was felt that
polyphenols are antioxidant. In fact, that is not true. What polyphenols are, are mitochondrial uncouples and uncoupling mitochondria actually
protects mitochondria from damage. Number one and number two stimulates mitochondria to make
more mitochondria, which is called mitogenesis. And actually number three allows mitochondria
to waste energy to do a caloric bypass. So, study after study shows
that coffee consumption actually improves microbiome diversity. It actually makes more and more
different bacteria in your gut. And it's because of the
richness of the polyphenols. So it's an impressive and easy way to
give your microbiome foods that they need. Now, once you have the microbiome,
eating the polyphenols, then they manufacture compounds from those
polyphenols that you can absorb. And when you absorb those compounds, they go
to work in uncoupling your mitochondria study. After study of people who drink coffee,
particularly really polyphenol rich coffee, they have much better brain health. Why? Because the polyphenols actually help uncouple
the neurons in your brain keeping them healthy.
Now, fun fact, which really is strange, the lighter the roast of the coffee,
the more polyphenols are present, the darker the roast of coffee, the less
polyphenols are present even though it tastes stronger and richer, the darker the roast,
the more the polyphenols were are destroyed. So easy thing to remember, roast your coffee
either light or medium if you want polyphenols, stay away from the dark roast, that's
actually damaging the polyphenol.
The other thing that's remarkable that
you'll learn in my upcoming book, Gut Check is that the longer the coffee grounds are exposed
to the water, the more polyphenols are extracted. So strangely enough, boiled coffee
like Greek or Turkish coffee has a much higher polyphenol content
than other forms of brewing coffee. Now, I'm not saying to go out and boil your coffee
all day, but we have to learn from these super healthy long lived cultures that perhaps they're
on to something and they were on to something because the polyphenol content was increased, the
longer the grounds were in contact with the water. Fun fact, now coffee can
actually raise your C cola means.
Now most people think that catacholamines like adrenaline like epinephrine is bad for
you that you don't want catacholamines. Well, in fact, catacholamines are a very
important part of our communication system, hormonal system to make your heart
and your brain actually work better. Now, when I need to get the most
heart function out of a patient with a lousy heart, believe it or not,
I give them intravenous forms of Cine. And sure enough study after study, including some of my studies show that
these dramatically improve heart function. So why wouldn't I wanna give my
heart a nice boost of function particularly early in the morning
or when I need some get up and go? Now, a lot of people say, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. But coffee increases your cortisol levels
and cortisol is really bad for you. And cortisol makes you gain weight. I'm sorry. That is one of the greatest inner myths out there. There is no relationship with
cortisol and weight gain. Yes, there is relationship between giving someone Cortisone hydrocortisone
as a drug and weight gain. But that has nothing to do with endogenous
cortisol production and the amount that you get from a cup of coffee will
do nothing to promote weight gain.
Now it is true that drinking unfiltered
coffee in general will raise your LDL. And many physicians say, oh my gosh,
if you're going to have coffee, the last thing you wanna do is have
boiled coffee or percolated coffee or espresso because your LDL will go up
and that, for the most part is true. Now, it turns out that a paper filter will absorb some of the oils in coffee
that actually raise LDL. So if you're really concerned about LDL, then use a paper filter and please
don't use a white paper filter. Use an unbleached one. But one of the great myths of heart disease
that I've been fighting against for years now is that LDL per se contributes to
the development of heart disease. Now, if you like the cholesterol theory
of heart disease and it is a theory and I don't particularly like it, but if you like
it and that's ok, then LDL has to be oxidized.
It has to be rusty or rancid. It has to be activated to produce plaque. If it's not oxidized, I'm sorry, it's
not gonna contribute to plaque formation. Now, it turns out and I've published this,
the more polyphenols you have in your system, including from coffee, the less your LDL oxidizes
and the less sticky your blood vessels are and you gotta have sticky blood vessels to have LDL, which
would be activated, stick to your blood vessels. So if you don't have sticky blood vessels
from eating or drinking lots of polyphenols. Then you don't have to worry about that. LDO. So we don't need to focus on our LDO. We need to focus on not oxidizing our LDO. And that's exactly what coffee consumption does. Now, one note I will make, don't
have your coffee after dinner. Even decaf in some parts of the world, this is
very common but it can not only lead to stomach problems but coffee, even decaf coffee will relax
what's called the lower esophageal sphincter. It's a trap door between your swallowing
tube and your stomach and coffee.
And believe it or not, chocolate relaxes
that sphincter so that if you have a big meal and then follow it up with a
cup of coffee and maybe a chocolate, you might be one of those vulnerable persons
who's going to get reflux when they go to bed. Now, the good news is if you
follow my advice and don't eat, finish eating three hours before you
go to bed, then that point is moot. But most people have that late night
dinner, late night coffee, even decaf and maybe a piece of chocolate and they're
suffering for several hours after the night. Now, it's true in many people that coffee
consumption does temporarily raise blood sugar. The good news is you can add cinnamon
to your coffee like the Viennese like Viennese coffee or add allo allo as you know, is a nonnutritive sweetener which feeds
friendly bacteria and lowers blood sugar. So I use a in my coffee and I'm
not doing it to make it sweet. I'm doing it to blood the sugar
effect and feed my gut bacteria last.
But certainly not least, please, please, please do not add cream or real sugar
to your coffee or milk for that matter. You will cancel out all the amazing
benefits of what we've just talked about. You do not want to add milk to your coffee. If you have to do it, take a tip from the Italians
who make a little foam and have a espresso macchiato with just a little topping of foam
rather than having a latte or even a cappuccino. And please, please, please don't have
one of these flavored coffee drinks thinking you're going to get
any benefit from the coffee. You're going to get a four or calorie sugar bomb that will have absolutely no benefit
from what you think you're getting.
So if you really want to have it sweet
and creamy use unsweetened coconut milk, all or many of the MC T creamers that are
available out there, they'll be perfectly fine. You'll get the creaminess
and the texture you want, but you'll get the benefits
that you want from coffee. So enjoy your coffee, just enjoy it the right way. And you're gonna have some amazing health benefits that the world has known about
since coffee was discovered.
Four amazing episodes just like this one watch. Now, he is loaded with folate, iron and
magnesium and potassium, magnesium and potassium are two of the vitamins that most
people are really profoundly deficient in..