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Comment by kyleee | Hacker News Reader

just make sure to filter it through paper, keep french press/chemex/cowboy preparations as a once in a while treat

and maybe don't have 5 cups a day, shoot for one nice cup, maybe 2 sometimes

What's the basis for those statements? Especially the "five cups a day" one. The article says otherwise, which is one of the interesting things about it.

> Importantly, consuming any amount of coffee was not associated with a higher risk of heart rhythm problems, including atrial fibrillation (AFib) or atrial flutter, which Kistler said is often what clinicians are concerned about.

I'm also looking at the Wikipedia article on the health effects of coffee, and it seems like 4 cups a day is sort of the sweet spot for a lot of positive effects, but I don't see anything about more than that being bad in most cases.

> A 2012 meta-analysis concluded that people who drank moderate amounts of coffee had a lower rate of heart failure, with the biggest effect found for those who drank more than four cups a day.

Five cup a day drinker over here, so I'd love to know if you have conflicting sources.

This term "cup" is kind of problematic though. 4 espressos? Which have about 120mg of caffeine each. Or 4 starbuck large size? Which have something like 400mg of caffeine.

The general convention is that a cup of coffee represents 80-100mg of caffeine, usually in the form of 8oz drip coffee = 1 US cup

Caffeine can raise intraocular pressure which puts you at increased risk from glaucoma - especially if you already have a genetic predisposition for it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22978219

One of the defining features of a Chemex is the paper filter it uses

Can I ask what role the paper plays?

Is it that the granules cause health problems?

The filter stops cholesterols which are abundant in coffee.

It doesn’t block cafestol, which increases cholesterol synthesis.

Fun fact: not all cholesterol is bad; it’s only the LDL, while HDL is thought to be good for the heart.

Funner facts; HDL is not protective. It correlates negatively with poor glucose control. That is, people with low HDL have impaired glucose control, but raising HDL doesn’t bring any benefit.

LDL concentration isn’t meaningful at an individual level. LDL particle counts however are. Lots of small LDL particles are way more atherogenic than a few large particles, given a constant density.

I don't think this is true. While it's possible that coffee can raise cholesterol levels, it doesn't actual contain any. Here's what the top result off Google for [coffee cholesterol] says:

Though brewed coffee does not contain actual cholesterol, it does have two natural oils that contain chemical compounds -- cafestol and kahweol -- which can raise cholesterol levels.

https://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/coffee-choleste...

So yes, filtering probably makes a difference, but not because it's taking out "abundant" cholesterols.

Additionally, dietary cholesterol doesn't increase blood cholesterol levels for the most part

It's super addictive (at least for me). I'll go from one cup a day to 5 in a flash, and wonder why I'm anxious all the time.

What's wrong with french press?

Other studies have shown a correlation with mortality and filtered/unfiltered coffee. Which goes a long way to explaining how some coffee studies showed benefits and others problems, because the studies tended to be regional and were studying slightly different things.

https://www.wellandgood.com/unfiltered-coffee-study/ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20474873209144...

Doesn't Chemex use a paper filter?

Yes. I am a huge fan of chemex coffee. I have tried a lot of different machines and the simple chemex always comes out on top.

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