Not only are there good things in healthy organic coffee, the grounds are healthy too. Unfortunately coffee grounds usually go down the garbage disposal or into the landfill. With hope that some of the benefits of the byproducts of making a cup of coffee can be made use of, here is a bit about healthy coffee grounds.
All about the Antioxidants
UPI reports that researchers at the University of Granada in Spain have looked at coffee byproducts and found that a large amount of regular and organic coffee antioxidants remain with the grounds after you make your coffee.
Researchers from the University of Granada found that antioxidant levels in spent coffee grounds and coffee silver skin are especially high. The silver skin is one of the protective layers in between the outer coffee berry and the beans inside; it is typically removed prior to roasting.
Some consumers use spent coffee grains as a do-it-yourself exfoliant. Others deposit coffee grounds into their compost pile. But the vast majority of coffee byproducts make their way to the landfill.
That’s a shame, according to researcher and food science professor Jose Angel Rufian Henares. Henares’ research team found silver skins and used coffee grounds to be rich in fiber and phenols, and to have antimicrobial and antioxidant properties 500 times greater than vitamin C.
Researchers hope that their findings will inspire food producers and others to devise ways to recoup these healthy coffee grounds and make use of them in healthy products.
Coffee Grounds for Skin Care
Someone is already taking advantage of the benefits of healthy coffee grounds. According to Florida Today, Star Beauty Products turns coffee grounds into skin care products.
Star Body Beauty Products, recycles espresso grounds and converts them into a variety of skin care products, including facial and body scrubs, soaps, lotions and bronzing balms.
The company’s founder, Barbara Mekolites-Marich, said she started manufacturing recycled coffee beauty products because she wanted to simultaneously reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfills and produce organic, caffeine-infused cosmetics.
Some medical research indicates that topical caffeine products reduce inflammation, reverse sun damage, provide antioxidant protection and minimize the appearance of cellulite. Although those scientific theories have not been definitively proven, they are causing some women to add caffeine skin products to their beauty regimen.
Star Body Beauty Products is a green company that uses reusable packaging gets its coffee grounds from local coffee houses.
Why Antioxidants?
What is the point about antioxidants? That is, why should we want to recover them from healthy coffee beans? Scientifically 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.