Office Coffee Machines May Raise Heart Disease Risk, Study Warns

Today, coffee machines have become a staple of the modern workplace. While most of us enjoy starting the workday with a fresh cup, a study reveals that office coffee machines may produce coffee containing compounds linked to a higher risk of heart disease.

Researchers from Uppsala University and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden examined 14 coffee machines in various healthcare facilities and found high levels of two natural compounds- cafestol and kahweol- which have been shown to raise levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. While paper filters in traditional drip coffee can trap these substances, the metal filters commonly used in office machines allow them to pass directly into your cup.

According to the study, cafestol levels in machine-brewed coffee reached 176 mg per liter- nearly 15 times higher than the concentration found in paper-filtered coffee. The researchers estimated that replacing just three cups of machine-brewed coffee with paper-filtered alternatives, five days a week, could reduce LDL levels enough to lower the risk of heart disease by up to 13% over five years.

If you're not ready to give up your cup at the machine, manually filtering the coffee after brewing can significantly reduce the presence of these harmful compounds.