Everybody loves a good debate to go with a good cup of joe.
How is French Press Coffee Different?
Let’s start at the beginning. Unless you’re drinking Turkish coffee, you don’t want any grounds in your coffee. They taste bad and feel worse.
There are many ways of keeping the grounds out of your coffee. The simplest: letting the grounds settle and pouring very carefully.
Most coffee styles use some sort of filter for the job. Paper filters are the norm for drip and pourover coffee, while other methods like espresso, percolator, Moka pot, and French press use a metal filter. In either case, the filter removes the coffee grounds from your finished drink, but there are small differences.
So, Is Coffee, Or French Press Coffee Bad For Me?
Coffee contains over a thousand chemical compounds, and some of these are trapped by a paper filter, but not by a metal one.
The key compounds cited by the Harvard Health article that started this controversy are cafestol and kahweol. Both are diterpenes that are removed much more thoroughly by paper filters than by metal ones.
Now, stick with me here, a study measured the concentration of cafestol in French press coffee at around 300 times that in paper-filtered drip coffee. The metal filter does remove a bit of cafestol, but not much compared to boiled coffee.
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Bottom-line About Press coffee And Your Health
The effects on consuming cafestol and kahweol are indirect, pushing on your body’s systems in such a way as to increase your LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels. High levels of these are linked with increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Here’s where it get’s interesting. The key question is, how big of an increase? Five cups of French press coffee a day increases LDL cholesterol levels by about 7 mg/dL and triglyceride levels by about 11 mg/dL.
These aren’t big numbers – the optimal range for LDL cholesterol is 100-129 mg/dL – but they’re not nothing. That number is easily enough to push your LDL from good to borderline high or from borderline high to undesirable. The triglyceride increase is less troubling, but still worth noting, especially if you already have problems with your triglyceride levels.
According to Dr. Eric Rimm, epidemiology professor at Harvard School of Public Health, “five to eight cups a day of unfiltered coffee may actually raise your ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol.” French press has not been linked to an increase in cancer risk or other dangerous illnesses. That said, Dr. Rimm suggests you keep an eye on your cholesterol levels, more specifically LDL. He also says you shouldn’t have more than four cups of unfiltered coffee per day, and five filtered cups per day.
What Can You Do To Protect Your Health?
If you’re already having problems with your cholesterol, cutting out French press coffee might be a good idea. Make sure you switch to a method with a paper filter – switching to a Moka pot won’t help you. Don’t overdo the espresso either.
If you want to take some small precautions, start by not overdoing things. The figures above are based on consuming five cups (that’s tiny 4 fluid ounce/120 mL cups, not actual 8 fluid ounce cups or that oil drum you call a mug) a day. If you’re drinking a ton of French press coffee, consider mixing it up with paper-filtered preparations like a pourover.
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Conclusion
I started researching this article assuming that the answer to the question, “Is French press coffee bad for you?” would be no. I was getting there, and about to say that it was fine unless you were drinking it by the gallon, but then the note that the study referred to 4 ounce cups floored me. My answer now is that french press coffee is a bit bad for you.
My French press is 750 mL, or about 6¼ of those mini-cups, and that puts me right in the risk zone. My cholesterol levels are not that bad, but not that good, so I’m going to be changing my routine. I’ll keep drinking French press coffee some days, but I’ll switch to using a pourover-style for others. I’ll also bring up my coffee consumption the next time I talk to my doctor, and I suggest that you do the same.
I appreciate your article- with that said here’s a suggestion for all of us French Press people
Put a paper filter in with the mesh metal filter – I tried it – no more sludge in the bottom of my cuppa beautiful coffee and the taste is unbelievable
May you enjoy that cuppa Joe more now
Blessed Be
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So if one wanted to make their french press healthier, could they filter their coffee twice? Once with the metal filter of the French press and once with a paper filter before drinking it?
Yes, this is a reasonable method for cutting down on the amount of cafestol and kahweol levels typically found in traditionally brewed FP coffee.
this is very upsetting. i’d been drinking non-paper filter coffee for years, using through an espresso machine (doubles) or using a metal filter…both of which are adding to my cholestrol.
so i went back to organic unbleached paper filters to run my coffee through. i could tasted the difference…the coffee had a sweeter, much more mild tasted. i liked it better…for a couple of cups. but i’ve been having it for a few months now and hate it. it just doesn’t have the depth and fullness of non-paper filtered coffees. worse, i prefer the very light roasts.
and, yes, my cholesterol is not good…somewhere around 300.
but still, i just can’t stomach this mild coffee, castrated coffee no matter how long i let it brew or how many beans i use. i’m going back.
the only good in all of this is that much of my cholesterol level had been from my massive sweet tooth, so i’ve cut all that way down. also, i have about 1-3 cups of coffee a day, not a lot, but certainly not the mini-4oz cups. we must do what we must…so back i go to unfiltered coffee.
so i was sad to read this article, which basically bore out what i’d read elsewhere 🙁
So my question is, can’t I just pour my French press coffee through a filter on its way into the mug? Wouldn’t this help filter out some of the diterpenes?
Thank you for writing this article. It was very informative and answered my questions. I had done a search asking is “French press coffee bad for me” and your site came up. I’m glad it did, now I know about your site! I have learned a lot already. Again, Thank you!
Thank you for this info but this article only tells half the story. What is worse for your health is when hot water and especially hot acidic water (like coffee) comes in contact with plastic, yes including BPA free plastic. During my working years the coffee was prepared in a commercial all stainless Bunn machine. After retirement I bought several drip coffee makers. Drinking black coffee I could taste a plastic taste. Extensive research showed harmful effects of plastic in coffee makers allowing chemicals to leach into your drink. The worst effect is probably endocrine disruption meaning it blocks your bodies natural hormones. Followed by cancer, Herat disease, diabetes and reproductive problems. We switched to a French press while searching for a no plastic drip. The French press left coffee stains on the cup and some fine grounds at the bottom. We now insert a paper filter between the two screen and trim with scissors leaving 1/2 inch overhang but it causes back pressure so you have to press slowly. We also found don’t wait press right away extremely slowly then pour works best for us. The Bunn Vp-17ss is closest to no plastic if you replace filter bracket with SS one however the concern is the water reservoir holds three pots of coffee warm which works in restaurant but at home who wants to drink warm water that’s been sitting 24 hours and what kind of bacteria can form. Amazing no one can come out with all stainless steel internals with removable stainless tank that can be rinsed. Only issue would be time for water to heat up but to avoid all these health problems who would not take five minutes?
We switched from drip coffee maker to all stainless steel French press after reading coffee makers that allow hot water to come in contact with plastic including BPH free leach chemicals and since coffee is acidic it makes it worse. After reading this article we place a paper filter between the two screens of the French press. It would be nice is manufactures made an all stainless drip coffee maker for home use.