If there’s one topic of coffee research I’m loathe to wade into, it is coffee’s potential effect on fat loss. Diet culture and unrealistic body image standards have rendered the topic fraught and I’m loathe to approach anything that appears like telling someone what to do with their own body. So before we go any further, let me start off by stating that weight loss—even fat loss—is not equivalent with being healthier. It can be in some cases, but far from all. Health is an issue between you and your physician, not you and your scale or your mirror.
Now, with all that said, if fat loss is a goal of yours, new research suggests that coffee may be a viable contributor. But the brewing method matters.
As reported by Medical News Today, a new study from a team of Danish researchers examines how one coffee compound affects metabolic health. Published last month in the journal Nutrients, the researchers sought to study how cafestol impacted insulin sensitivity. Over the course of the 12-week trial, 40 “healthy individuals with increased waist circumference at risk of developing type 2 diabetes” were divided into two groups: those who received cafestol and a control group. The cafestol group received 6mg of the compound twice daily for the duration of the experiment while the control group received a placebo.
The researchers found that, while things like insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance were not improved, cafestol was linked with “significant reductions in body weight (2%) and visceral fat volume (5%).” This in an of itself, the researchers state, may contribute to a decreased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
There’s a catch, though. While cafestol is a naturally occurring compound in coffee, how you prepare the coffee will greatly impact the levels. Unfiltered brewing methods—espresso, French press, Turkish coffee, etc—have much higher levels of cafestol compared to filter brewing.
Due to the very limited nature of the study, more research is required to establish a causal relation between cafestol and fat loss, but the results offer promise for future insights into viable means of preventing type 2 diabetes. So if weight loss if your goal, don’t bench press, French press! (But also bench press, because exercise is good for you.)
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
