Contents
What nutritionists look at on the label to choose the best coffee
Nutrition
Natural roast and roasted coffee go through different processes. The second causes the coffee to lose its properties
There are few morning routines that don’t include a heavy coffee pot and a comforting cup of coffee. Although some drink it alone, others stained with milk, and others, on the other hand, drink milk stained with coffee, there are many who bet on this drink so typical in our diet that we cannot imagine our day to day without it.
But just as there are hundreds of ways to take it, there are also hundreds of types of coffee. And each one has characteristics, as well as properties and benefits. There are so many types, and formats (ground, soluble, in capsules), that when it comes to choosing the coffee that will accompany us in the morning, we may not know very well what we should look at to end up in our basket with the best. The first thing we should know is that we can find healthier coffees than others. The collaborating nutritionist of ABC Bienestar, Elisa Escorihuela, explains that this depends on “how the coffee bean is processed and, to a lesser extent, on the quality of the bean.” Within the ground coffees, we find three types: the 100% Arabica coffee of natural roast (within this type we will find a light, medium and dark roast), the roasted and the mixture.
Natural or roasted coffee
Nutritionist María Eugenia Fernández (@ meugenia84) explains that, when determining whether a coffee has higher quality than another we must look at the roast it has. “The coffee bean, when collected from its plant, has a green color and almost no aroma. When it is subjected to the roasting process is when its properties are altered until obtaining that dark color that we all know and all its characteristics of flavor and aroma “, explains the nutritionist.
He comments then, that if we talk about natural roasting, we talk about when the grain is processed in the toaster, where it moves at high temperatures, while its organoleptic properties are modified. «The temperature and the time spent there will influence the roasting, for this reason, there are different types or degrees of roast“, He says. Elisa Escorihuela points out that this natural roast is the one with the coffee that we call 100% Arabica coffee. “Depending on the intensity of the roast, it will have a more or less strong flavor and color and its caffeine content will also vary according to this factor,” says the nutritionist.
If we talk about roasted coffee, this is the coffee that arises from a process in which sugars are added to the coffee bean while toasting. “The sugar melts until it burns and wraps the grain, which generates a strong flavor with greater bitterness and a very dark tone that in a way covers the original taste of the coffee”, says María Eugenia Fernández, who adds that, for each 100 kilos of coffee, 15 of sugar are added, which is what gives it the tone we know. “This type of coffee is widely consumed in our country, but it is made because there is a habit, not because it is of higher quality,” he points out.
When we refer to coffee mix, we refer to a type of packaging that is offered in the market where natural roasted and roasted beans are combined.
What to look at when choosing a coffee?
When choosing which coffee to buy, what the nutritionist María Eugenia Fernández recommends is look for a coffee with the least roasted bean, since this way it will offer more nutritional contributions. “The greatest benefit of coffee is its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which is not only due to the levels of caffeine, but also to other components in the beans that are positive, such as phenols. These antioxidant properties decrease according to the level of toasting, “he explains. Also, he comments that roasted coffee, being so bitter, needs sugar to sweeten it. Therefore, if we opt for a natural roast, it is more likely that we need less sugar when it comes to taking it.
On the other hand, we can choose buy soluble coffee, which does not need a coffee maker for its preparation, and it is much faster. “These coffees are not a bad option, but if we can choose, it is better to have natural roast coffee beans or ground”, says Elisa Escorihuela. He comments that for the preparation of soluble coffee a glower quality coffee ranoRobusta coffee, this one is a bit more bitter than the rest.
Is soluble coffee healthy?
«This coffee goes through a process in which all soluble solids are extracted from the coffee bean and the contained water is removed. Also, it contains a lower amount of caffeine than that of natural roast “, he points out. Among its drawbacks, the nutritionist highlights that, as these granules are sometimes mixed with other cereals or seeds to give them more weight and better color, this can cause some digestive problems such as upset stomach, bloating, or diarrhea.
Regarding capsule coffee, both professionals agree that it is important to look at what type of ground coffee they have in order to choose the best ones, although they comment that, since most are made with non-recyclable materials, they have a high impact on the environment and are better avoid them.
The advantages of decaffeinated coffee
Finally, they talk about the decaffeinated coffee. Elisa Escorihuela comments that, in this type of coffee, the caffeine is extracted from the bean, and as a result we obtain a coffee that preserves the same antioxidant properties of coffee, but, we will not have the nutritional benefits of caffeine itself, such as its protective effect cancer and cardiovascular diseases. «Yes they can appear slight differences in color and also in aroma and nuances of decaffeinated beans with respect to the original coffee », adds María Eugenia Fernández.
The recommendation of both is to choose the one that best suits our diet. The collaborator of ABC Bienestar concludes, that the important thing is “Avoid adding large amounts of sugar”, as well as other supplements, such as cream or cream, to be able to drink the healthiest coffee possible.