The Healthy Chemistry of Coffee

How many chemicals are there in a cup of coffee? The answer is: about 1,500! These chemicals are good for you as evidenced by the many health benefits of drinking coffee. The reason to drink healthy organic coffee is that as many as 133 contaminants may be in a cup of commercially available coffee. These contaminants include metals such as aluminum and zinc, pesticide residues, ochratoxin A, acrylamide, furan, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found to cause cancer. Furans have been associated with skin disorders, liver problems, certain kinds of cancers, impairment to the reproductive, endocrine, and immune system, as well as effects on embryonic development. This is according to a study by the Australian Food Standards Authority. The good part about organic coffee is that it is free of herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and synthetic fertilizers that are the bad chemistry of coffee. The healthy chemistry of coffee comes for the caffeine and antioxidants. Here is a bit of info about the healthy chemistry of coffee.

The Healthy Chemistry of Coffee

This is too small a space to list all of the useful and healthy chemicals in coffee. Rather here is a list of the chemical groups into which these 1,500 chemicals fall.

 

Group
Number of Chemicals
Aliphatic compounds 150
Carbonyl compounds 56
Sulfur containing compounds 9
Alicyclic compounds 20
Ketones 10
Aromatic benzenoid compounds 60
Phenols 16
Heterocyclic compounds 300
Furans 74
Hydrofurans 10
Pyrroles 37
Pyridines 9
Quinolines 2
Pyrazines 70
Quinoxalines 10
Indoles 3
Thiophens 23
Thiophenones 3
Thiazoles 28
Oxazole 28

And coffee contains caffeine.  This is the chemical responsible for the morning wakeup effect of coffee. It also enhances performance when a person is fatigued and maintains attention spans when we get bored. In addition caffeine helps prevent cirrhosis of the liver and reduces the likelihood of getting Parkinson’s disease or developing kidney stones.

Antioxidants Are Good for You

As we already noted by drinking organic coffee you avoid the occasional bad chemical in coffee. The healthy chemistry of coffee revolves around the caffeine and the antioxidants in coffee. So drink organic coffee and get organic coffee antioxidants. An antioxidant is a molecule that inhibits the cell damage and cell death in human cells caused by oxidative breakdown of other molecule in the cell. Oxidation is a factor in sickness and aging. Antioxidants help prevent the damage caused by excessive oxidation and to a degree inhibit the aging process. When an oxidative reaction brought on by disease gets going it produces free radicals that start chain reactions which in turn cause cell and tissue damage. The human body has or uses antioxidants to control this situation. Natural means of controlling oxidation include vitamins C and E as well as glutathione. It is low levels of antioxidants that can lead to a condition referred to as oxidative stress and resultant damage to cells in the body. Organic coffee antioxidants are in the same class of molecules that help reduce oxidation. Enjoy the your organic coffee and take advantage of the healthy chemistry of coffee.




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