Pros and Cons of Decaf Coffee: Is It Harmful to Health? What's the Typical Price of Colombian Decaf Coffee Beans?

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Is Decaf Coffee Really Healthier Than Regular Coffee?

A 2006 report from the University of Florida pointed out that almost all decaffeinated coffee actually contains some level of caffeine.

Caffeine is the most widely consumed drug in the world. University of Florida researchers mentioned in the "Journal of Drug Analysis" that each unit of Espresso contains 3 to 15.8 milligrams of caffeine, while regular brewed coffee contains 12 to 13.4 milligrams of caffeine per 16 ounces. If a person drinks five to ten cups of decaffeinated coffee, the amount of caffeine they consume actually approaches the caffeine content of drinking one to two cups of regular coffee. Another author of this journal, Dr. Bruce Goldberger, a forensic medicine expert at the University of Florida's William R. Maples Center, also stated that for those who have been advised to reduce caffeine intake due to kidney disease or anxiety tendencies, the results of this research data may be concerning. If your doctor advises you not to consume caffeine, you should stop drinking decaffeinated coffee.

Dr. Bruce Goldberger believes that for people with sensitive constitutions, even moderate caffeine intake can cause restlessness, anxiety, rapid heartbeat, and elevated blood pressure. Additionally, Griffths补充 that patients should pay extra attention not to drink popular coffees like Latte. Although Latte has a light coffee flavor, the caffeine released in one cup of Latte is equivalent to the amount in a can of cola, equaling 31 milligrams.

Decaffeinated Coffee (Decaf)

Commercial decaffeinated coffee beans are quite easy to find online, and even Starbucks sells them. I strongly recommend against using decaffeinated coffee beans. Decaffeinated coffee reduces caffeine through processing, which also reduces many of the inherent flavors that coffee should have. In that case, the original purpose of drinking coffee disappears.

Four Methods of Processing Decaffeinated Coffee Beans:

Indirect Solvent Method

In this method, coffee beans are soaked in near-boiling water for several hours, which extracts caffeine and many flavor elements into the water. Then this water is separated from the coffee beans, and dichloromethane or ethyl acetate is added. Chemical molecules break down the caffeine, which is then evaporated through heating. The final liquid is reintroduced to the coffee beans to reabsorb coffee oils and aroma. This method is quite popular in Europe and has various names such as European method, dichloromethane method, and European process.

Direct Solvent Method

This method steams coffee beans for about thirty minutes first, opening the pores of the beans through heat, then adds solvents to rinse them together, usually using dichloromethane or ethyl acetate. After about ten hours, caffeine can be removed, then these solvents are discarded and the coffee beans are re-steamed to remove residual chemicals. This method typically uses ethyl acetate and is also called natural decaffeination method or ethyl acetate method.

Swiss Water Process

After coffee beans are soaked in warm water, caffeine dissolves into the water. Activated carbon equipment filters out the caffeine, then the solution is poured back into the coffee beans. This method doesn't use chemical solvents, but the coffee loses many flavors during the filtering process.

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction

In this method, coffee beans soaked in water are placed in stainless steel containers. High pressure causes released carbon dioxide to become liquid, which then extracts caffeine. These carbon dioxide liquids then return to room temperature and turn back into gas. Due to cost considerations, this method is usually used on very large quantities of coffee beans. Branded products found in supermarkets typically use this method.

★ If you Google dichloromethane and ethyl acetate, you can see their usual uses. After reading about them, you should feel even more inclined to avoid decaffeinated coffee.

Conclusion

Friends who like coffee but fear caffeine should have a more detailed understanding after reading this article and probably won't want to buy decaffeinated coffee anymore. In fact, choosing good coffee beans and paying attention to storage and brewing methods means a cup of coffee won't cause palpitations or insomnia. The caffeine in coffee is water-soluble, and consuming sufficient water can help the body expel caffeine.

Caffeine is named after coffee itself. It's a great pity to give up its original taste just because of caffeine. The processing methods introduced above are mostly chemical processing. In this era of pursuing health, shouldn't coffee be more pure?

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