Cafestol and Kahweol - Two Reasons You Should Give Up Espresso

Cafestol and Kahweol are two nasty little oils, which cause elevation of one's cholesterol levels. Rather than type a whole lot in this regard, I'll simply cite the following: "TOXICOLOGICAL SUMMARY FOR CAFESTOL AND KAHWEOL" (Raymond Tice, Ph.D., Integrated Laboratory Systems, October 1999):

9.0 TOXICOLOGICAL DATA
9.1 General Toxicology
9.1.1 Human Data
A direct relationship between coffee consumption and total cholesterol has been
demonstrated (Thelle et al., 1987). The cholesterol-raising effect of boiled coffee has been
associated with the diterpenes from coffee oil (Heckers et al., 1994; Mensink et al., 1995; Urgert
et al., 1995a; Urgert and Katan, 1996). Paper-filtered coffee does not elevate cholesterol since
the lipid content (including diterpenes) is negligible (van Dusseldorp et al., 1991; Ahola et al.,
1991; Ratnayake et al., 1993; all cited by Urgert et al., 1996). In a 2-year cross-sectional study
of Norwegian subjects controlling for possible confounding variables such as body mass index,
number of cigarettes, and physical activity, boiled coffee increased serum cholesterol by 8% (18
mg/dL; 0.47 mmol/L) in men and 10% (21 mg/dL; 0.55 mmol/L) in women (Stensvold et al.,
1989). For those drinking filter coffee, the effect was only significant for women.
More than 20 epidemiology studies have been conducted. The effects of cafestol and
kahweol on cholesterol, triglyceride, lipoprotein, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity
levels from some of these studies are given in section 9.10.2.

If this is interesting to you, I suggest reading the entire paper, which you can find via the NIH: http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/htdocs/Chem_Background/ExSumPdf/Cafestol.pdf

I've personally given up everything above and beyond drip coffee, and have seen my LDL levels drop substantially. Aside from better health, it's added dollars and cents to my wallet, as drip coffee is substantially cheaper than the more upscale coffee drinks.