Right brew boosts benefits of your morning cup of joe
YOU DOCS | Instant coffee loses flavor, but it's higher in fiber than filtered blend
Q. You've mentioned that coffee can help you live longer and be healthier. Can you get these benefits from instant coffee, or only from brewed? -- Kerri
A. Although instant java is highly processed, the caffeine and some of the healthy polyphenols found in brewed coffee are preserved, because instant starts its life as brewed coffee. Really, instant is just brewed coffee that's either been freeze- or spray-dried until the liquid is gone. But some of the polyphenols and the taste go, too; how much depends on which beans, what brewing process and which drying methods are used.
However, there's a healthy twist to this story: Although brewed-coffee drinkers curl their lips at instant, the instant crowd actually is getting two-thirds more fiber than filtered-coffee drinkers are.
Believe it or not, a 12-ounce cup of instant contains about 3 grams of fiber, compared with about 1.8 grams in the same amount of brewed. Bonus: The fiber helps your body absorb those polyphenols (plant substances that help your body help itself). So if you prefer instant, drink up and laugh off the coffee snobs. They don't know what they're missing.
Q. I like non-dairy creamer or soy milk in my coffee and tea, but I've heard they wipe out the antioxidants in these drinks. Is that true? --Deanna
A. We're sure that certain whiteners "kill" at least some of the healthy compounds in coffee and tea. The casein, a common protein in milk, binds coffee and tea polyphenols, substantially lessening the benefits of the non-caffeine part of the tea and coffee. While those data were very clear and impressive in four studies, other studies have found no difference in the levels of polyphenols in tea (including green tea) when milk from cows, rice or soy was added. Maybe they took the casein out, or maybe different researchers measured things differently.
But even if the healthy compounds are reduced more than the research suggests, you're still getting some, and you're far better off drinking tea than sugary sodas. Especially if you drink tea and coffee without sugar and only with skim milk.
So, when it comes to coffee, the jury's still out on whether whiteners have a big effect. But one thing is clear: You will get more healthy compounds to start with by -- surprise -- brewing a medium-roast coffee rather than a dark one, like French or Italian roast.
Q. My parents (ages 65 and 68) have used a fat-free hazelnut creamer in their coffee every day for years. My mom was recently diagnosed with a fatty liver, and I believe the amount of heavily processed foods she eats is partly to blame. I'm trying to persuade them to quit the creamer but can't find any real evidence that it's bad. Should I just relax and let them enjoy their morning coffee? --Anonymous
A. Save your battles for the rest of their diet. Liquid creamers aren't ideal -- they tend to have about 4 grams of added sugar -- but if your mother has only one cup of joe with them, it's probably not a significant contributor to her liver problems. But any added sugar is worse than none, so if you can get them off all processed foods, so much the better. Many processed foods basically freak out your liver, which doesn't understand how to metabolize them. Also, they're usually loaded with simple sugars and syrups (including corn, malt, rice and maple syrups -- those are just other words for sugar), so they invite weight gain. And extra weight means extra fat in the liver.
Show your parents quick ways to replace processed foods with easy-to-make wholesome ones. Remind them that it's not any harder to dump lettuce into a bowl than to dump chips there, or to open a bag of baby carrots instead of a bag of cheese curls. Their taste buds will adjust, and soon they'll prefer the flavor of real food to the taste of hydrogenated soybean oil and coloring agent Yellow 6.
Submit your questions at www.RealAge.com. Dr. Oz appears on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and gives more advice in his podcast at suntimes.com.