What Needs to Shift?

The best part of my day fits in a mug.

Beans crackling under the grinder, the steam rising from the kettle. Swirling my French press like a pretentious chemist. It feels like a small act of control in a chaotic world.

I'll turn travel into espresso expeditions, hunting down hidden cafes in places like Tokyo or Lisbon, tasting each pull and mentally ranking them against all the others I'd tried, like a coffee critic without borders.

No sugar, no dairy, just caffeine and clean fuel for plotting world domination.

Black coffee is always a good choice, right?

Not quite. Turns out, the brew method can tilt your long-term health toward or away from cardiovascular risk, dementia, and all-cause mortality.

Most coffee aficionados think the only crimes against coffee is to drown it in syrup, heavy cream, or foamy monstrosities.

But the trouble starts even before you pour: in the brew, and the filter.

Pour Choices: Diterpenes and Their Dirty Work

What ends up in your mug depends on two groups of compounds found in coffee:

🟢 Polyphenols: water-soluble antioxidants linked to lower inflammation, slower cognitive decline, reduced cardiovascular risk, and more metabolic resilience.^1 2 3 4

🔴 Diterpenes: oily, fat-soluble compounds like that raise LDL cholesterol and have been associated with increased cardiovascular risk. ^5 6 7

Here’s the dividing line:

🟩 Filtered coffee—like pour-overs and machine drip—trap the diterpenes, but let the polyphenols through. Which means that it preserves the benefits and blocks the downsides.⁸

🟥 Unfiltered coffee—like french press or espresso—don’t discriminate. You get everything, the good, bad, and the sinister.⁸

Pour Problems: How Much Damage Are We Talking About?

Unfiltered brewing methods like French press, espresso, Turkish, and boiled coffee have been shown to raise LDL by 10 to 30 mg/dL (or 0.3 to 0.8 mmol/L), within just a few weeks. ^{9 10 11 12}

↦ In most countries, a healthy LDL score falls below 3.5 mmol/L (135 mg/d).

↦ For higher-risk individuals, that target drops <1.8 mmol/L (70 mg/dL).

↦ So, a 10-30 mg/dL (0.3-0.8 mmol/L) bump is enough to push someone from a “normal” reading straight into the “we need to talk” zone.

Filtered Coffee: The Line Between Perk and Problem

Most of the coffee benefits you’ve heard about? They’re about filtered coffee.

• 15% lower all-cause mortality ^13 14 15

• 20% lower risk of cardiovascular death ^15 16 17

• Up to 50% lower risk of dementia ^18 19 20

Switch to unfiltered, and most of those perks diminish. Hit 4+ cups per day, and it turns into 10-20% higher cardiovascular risk, and loss of the dementia protection you'd get from filtered. ^21 22

The brew method isn’t a footnote. It’s the hinge that decides whether your morning cups are helping or hurting.

The Taste That Got There First

For years, I used a French press (unfiltered). It felt artisanal. Quick. It made me feel slightly smug, especially when I was grinding fresh beans and pretending I could taste the difference.

Then I started noticing the sludge. The weird sourness. The fact that it always tasted a little…muddy.

So, I dabbled with pour-over. At first, just for the taste.

A pour-over brew hits clean, layered, and bright. The pour lands smooth instead of punching you in the throat.

I thought I was chasing taste (and sophistication). Only later did I realize what my palate already knew—I’d picked the brewing method that supported my longevity, too.

No complaints about landing on the right side of the filter.

And though pour-over is the star player, the other brews still have a spot on the roster.

Espresso: Unfiltered, But Forgivable

Espresso comes without a filter, but not without merit.

I’ll map out the best espresso shops in whatever city I land in, pull up a stool, figure out out why one barista’s brew hits harder than another’s.

I sip like it's art, not fuel.

Yes, espresso has diterpenes. But it also delivers a high antioxidant load per ounce. At 1-2 shots per day, the research shows that it still offers a net longevity benefit. ^12 15 23

That’s enough for me to raise a tiny cup in your direction.

Instant Coffee: The Cheap Trick That Works

Instant coffee is a brew most people assume is garbage. My snob radar agrees, but the data forces me to admit it’s not entirely undeserving. The processing behind instant coffee strips out diterpenes, but it still packs polyphenols, and shows protective benefits in large cohort studies. ^15 24

Is it sexy? No.

Will I drink it? Hell no.

But I’m not here to gatekeep your morning.

Pods, Plastics, and Other Morning Lies

Most cheap machine-drip brews fail twice: weak filters, and hot water picking up residues from plastic parts in the brew path. ²⁶

Pod-based espresso machines (think Nespresso) skip the filter and blast boiling water through plastic capsules.²⁵

Which means…you’re getting a side hit of microplastics with your morning jolt.

Is it a crisis? No.

At 1-2 cups per day, the downside is small. At 3–4, it’s worth rethinking your brew.

Your Next Move

You don’t need to overhaul your coffee ritual. You just need to filter it.

🤎 Make A Fair Trade to The Filtered Side

• Pour-over setups like Chemex or V60 give you full flavor, clean structure, and better health outcomes, with none of the baggage.

• Once you’ve got the rhythm, it’s about 5 mins of actual work. Here's how.

☕ Respect The Straight Shots

• If you love espresso, I respect it. Just don’t make 5 per day your baseline.

• Even greatness backfires when you overdose it.

⛔ Watch for Plastic Pitfalls

• If you shoot boiling water through plastic, you’re sipping a little microplastic cocktail while your cells weep in the background.

• Upgrade your brew gear: glass, ceramic, or steel. Your taste buds (and cells) will thank you.

⚠️ Don’t Miss the Forest for the Filter

• Coffee tweaks won’t fix a body that doesn’t move.

• If you’re not strength training, not conditioning, not building the kind of muscle that keeps you metabolically robust, then your brew method is irrelevant.

• Improve your brew. Then build a body that's worth preserving.

Your Shift In Review

• Whether coffee is beneficial or negative depends on how much you drink and whether it’s filtered or unfiltered.

• Filtered = pour-over (Chemex), machine drip = removes diterpenes, while preserving polyphenols which ↓ cardiovascular + dementia risk.

• Unfiltered = french press, stove-top, Turkish espresso = ↑ cardiovascular risks at 4+ cups per day.

• Espresso (despite being filtered) is a net health benefit at 1-2 shots per day.

1  Coffee polyphenols prevent cognitive dysfunction and suppress amyloid β plaques.

2  Neuroprotective Effects of Coffee Bioactive Compounds: A Review

3  Effect of Chlorogenic Acids on Cognitive Function in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Crossover Trial

4  Mediation of coffee-induced improvements in human vascular function
*2 randomized, controlled crossover trials (n=15 and n=24). Coffee matched for caffeine but low vs high CGA (≈89 vs 310 mg). Result: bi-phasic FMD improvements ≈0.8–1.5% post-drink; effects tracked plasma CGA metabolites, implicating polyphenols rather than caffeine.

5  Cafestol, the Cholesterol-Raising Factor in Boiled Coffee, Suppresses Bile Acid Synthesis

6  Effect of Coffee Lipids (Cafestol and Kahweol) on Regulation of Cholesterol Metabolism in HepG2 Cells

7  Separate Effects of the Foffee Diterpenes Cafestol and Kahweol on Serum Lipids and Liver Aminotransferases
*Cafestol ~60 mg/day for 28 days increased LDL by 0.57 mmol/L (~22 mg/dL) and total cholesterol by 0.79 mmol/L (~31 mg/dL). Adding kahweol nudged lipids slightly higher.

8  Cholesterol-raising factor from boiled coffee does not pass a paper filter

9  The Effect of Coffee Consumption on Serum Lipids: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
*12 trials, mean 45 days: overall LDL ↑ ~5.4 mg/dL.

10  Habitual coffee intake and plasma lipid profile: Evidence from UK Biobank

11  Impact of Coffee Consumption on Physiological Markers of Cardiovascular Risk

12  Coffee, Caffeine, and Health

13  Association of Coffee Drinking with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality
*Inverse, dose-responsive association with all-cause mortality; ~10–15% lower risk at ~3–5 cups/day after adjustment, similar for caffeinated & decaf.

14  Coffee Drinking and Mortality in 10 European Countries

15  The impact of coffee subtypes on incident cardiovascular disease, arrhythmias, and mortality
*UK Biobank cohort; n = 449,563; 10-year follow-up. Filtered coffee at 2-3 cups HR 0.85 all-cause mortality. Instant/ground/espresso at 2-3 cups HR 0.85 all-cause mortality, 15% lower; espresso subgroups similar.

16  Coffee consumption and health: umbrella review of meta-analyses of multiple health outcomes
*Umbrella meta of 201 metas; aggregate >10 million participants; up to 30 years. High vs. low coffee RR 0.82-0.85 all-cause mortality, 15-18% lower; filtered predominant.

17  Long-Term Coffee Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
*Meta of 36 cohorts; n = 1,279,804; up to 25 years. Coffee at 3-5 cups RR 0.81 CVD mortality, 19% lower; filtered dominant in samples.

18  Habitual Coffee Consumption and Risk of Cognitive Decline/Dementia
*Meta of 11 studies; n = 29,000; up to 10 years. Coffee/tea RR 0.73 dementia, up to 27% lower; J-shaped, peak 50% at 3-5 cups in sub-analyses; mixed brewing, filtered dominant.

19  Coffee Intake and The Incident Risk of Cognitive Disorders
*Meta of 9 cohorts; n = 34,282; up to 28 years. Coffee RR 0.73 dementia at 3 cups, up to 27% lower; extrapolated to 50% in high-quality sub-groups; filtered methods primary

20  Midlife Coffee and Tea Drinking and The Risk of Late-Life Dementia: A Population-Based CAIDE Study
*3–5 cups/day in midlife associated with ~65% lower risk of dementia/AD decades later vs 0–2 cups.

21  Coffee Consumption and Mortality from Cardiovascular Diseases and Total Mortality: Does the Brewing Method Matter?
*Norwegian cohort; n = 508,747; 20-year follow-up. Unfiltered >4 cups HR 1.19 CVD mortality in men ≥60, 19% higher; adjusted for confounders

22  The Association between Coffee and Tea Consumption at Midlife and Risk of Dementia Later in Life: The HUNT Study
*Key cohort (7,381 participants, 22-year follow-up) for boiled coffee; ≥8 cups boiled increases dementia risk (OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.05-2.01 initially, attenuates to non-significant after adjustments). Filtered at 4-5 cups reduces risk in men (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.32-0.72).

23  Daily Coffee Drinking Is Associated with Lower Risks of Cardiovascular and Total Mortality in a General Italian Population: Results from the Moli-sani Study
*Italian-style espresso consumption of >1 to ≤2 cups/day was associated with a hazard ratio for all-cause mortality of 0.79 (95% CI, 0.65–0.95) compared to rare or no consumption

24  Analysis of the Content of the Diterpenes Cafestol and Kahweol in Coffee Brews
*Lab analysis; various brews. Instant diterpenes negligible 0.02-0.1 mg/L; polyphenols retained.

25  Analysis of PBT and PET cyclic oligomers in extracts of coffee capsules and food simulants by a HPLC-UV/FLD method

26  Pouring hot water through drip bags releases thousands of microplastics into coffee