Introduction
Coffee pods have become increasingly popular in recent years, but are they bad for your health? In this article, we’ll explore the final verdict on whether coffee pods are bad for you, according to experts. We’ll look at the potential health risks associated with coffee pods, as well as the potential benefits. We’ll also discuss the environmental impact of coffee pods and how to make sure you’re making the healthiest choice when it comes to your coffee. So, let’s dive in and find out the final verdict on whether coffee pods are bad for you.
The Final Verdict on Whether Coffee Pods Are Bad for You, Expert Says
Coffee pods have become increasingly popular in recent years, but are they bad for you? According to nutrition expert Dr. Lisa Young, the answer is no.
Dr. Young says that coffee pods are not necessarily bad for you, but they can be if you don’t pay attention to the ingredients. She recommends looking for coffee pods that are made with natural ingredients and avoiding those with added sugar, artificial sweeteners, and other unhealthy additives.
Dr. Young also suggests that if you’re looking for a healthier alternative to coffee pods, you should consider cold brew coffee. Cold brew coffee is made by steeping coffee grounds in cold water for an extended period of time, which results in a smoother, less acidic flavor. It also contains fewer calories and less caffeine than traditional coffee.
At the end of the day, Dr. Young says that coffee pods are not necessarily bad for you, but it’s important to pay attention to the ingredients and choose wisely. Cold brew coffee is a great alternative if you’re looking for a healthier option.
If you use a single-cup coffee machine, here’s an interesting update. A biomedical scientist is sharing some wisdom about a study that recently found trace levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals in coffee brewed from plastic pods. As it turns out, says this scientist, there’s simply an important understanding for you to keep in mind before you hit that “Brew” button.
Keep reading to find out what may actually be going on inside your coffee cup—and, don’t miss another intriguing new study: Turns Out, Diet Soda May Actually Make You Gain Weight.
The stay-at-home lifestyle of the pandemic may have caused some coffee drinkers to put more time into preparing their brew each day. Even so, December 2020 figures from the consumer data firm Statista suggest that 27% of Americans still enjoyed their single-use coffee maker last year.
Meanwhile, last May, a team of nutrition and engineering scientists at the University of Connecticut conducted an experiment with the same plastic coffee pods that many people use on a daily basis. In an abstract published in Current Research in Toxicology, the researchers concluded, “All capsule coffee samples possessed estrogenic activity.”
According to research like this 2011 study, estrogenic activity occurs when chemicals mimic or otherwise adversely affect the body’s naturally occurring hormonal process. Health problems that have been associated with this effect are increased rates of cancers (such as some types of breast, ovarian, testicular, and prostate cancer), early puberty onset in children, obesity, reduced sperm count, and dysfunction of some sexual organs.
You can read more about these researchers’ intriguing coffee pod research here.
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In recent months, the study’s lead researcher, Ock Chun, Ph.D., MPH, confirmed to Eat This, Not That! in a phone discussion that her team did observe, as they reported in their abstract, that “coffee brewed from capsule machines may contain estrogenic chemicals migrated from plastic.”
However, Chun said, their research remained ongoing, and she explained: “We are exposed to these chemicals from everywhere these days.” That can include food packaging and even the paper some shopping receipts are printed on.
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Jacob Yount, Ph.D., is a biomedical scientist and Associate Professor in the Department of Microbial Infection and Immunity at The Ohio State University’s College of Medicine. Though Yount’s current research focuses primarily on viral illness, he was able to bring some interpretation to this more endocrinologically focused research on the effect of coffee pods.
In an interview with Eat This, Not That!, Yount says that based on the data that was reported by the researchers in the coffee pod study, the activity of the estrogen-like chemicals in the coffee pods is 10 million times lower in magnitude than actual estrogen. When asked whether or not this amount would yield a real biological effect on humans, Yount shared: “My take is that it would be pretty minimal.”
Yount also says that in order to determine what degree the body might absorb estrogen through the digestive system, it’s important to first discover whether or not estrogen can pass through the intestines.
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Still, it might not hurt for all of us to pay attention to how much food and drink we’re consuming from plastic packages and containers, Yount says. On the subject of hormone disruption from coffee pods, in particular, he gives an encouraging send-off: “I feel like it would have to be more than one a day.”
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