According to NPR, a California Judge has tentatively ruled that coffee must carry a cancer warning label due to a chemical that is produced during the roasting process. If you read the entire article you will see that this same chemical also causes reproductive toxicity. I don’t know if that means it harms a pregnancy or if that means something else, but either way it does not sounds good.
The bad news however, is that the lawsuit was filed 10 years ago. This means it took 10 years to get the word out that exposing coffee beans to high temperatures is unhealthy.
I have already heard this before from numerous health “nuts”. They all basically say the same thing – that cooking destroys the nutrient content of your food and the higher temperature you use the worse the food gets. We have heard of the studies published in the early aughts that charred and well-done meat contains a cancer-causing chemical, again – generated from the high temperatures, but I still see people ordering their steak or burger well done.
Some may say, “but John, what about E. Coli?” and I respond – if you are scared your meat may have E. Coli, you should not be eating it in the first place, you should only be eating clean meat that was raised in as much of a humane way as possible, and that meat will almost certainly have a lower incidence of E. Coli.
Now for some anecdotal evidence. Do you have any friends that drink cold brew coffee only? If so, ask them why. Do you also have any friends that if they drink a cup of coffee on an empty stomach say to you that their stomach hurts because they have acid-reflux disease? Well, I got news for you, acid-reflux is not a disease, it is a reaction of your body to too much acid and other toxic stuff being introduced in to your body.
So what should you do? Stick to cold brew…
Coffee causes cancer, I thought you knew. Starting from tomorrow, drink some cold brew!