Regular coffee may be better than decaffeinated

DALLAS – Fresh questions are percolating about the health effects of coffee, this time the decaffeinated variety.

One of the first substantial studies to test it like a drug instead of just asking people how much of it they consumed found higher blood levels of cholesterol-precursor fats in those drinking decaf vs. regular coffee or none at all.

But the differences were very small.

“I don’t think there’s a health threat,” regardless of which type of coffee is consumed, said Dr. H. Robert Superko of Fuqua Heart Center in Atlanta. He reported on it Wednesday at an American Heart Association conference.

However, several experts were skeptical about the whole thing.

“This whole area of coffee and heart disease has been brewing with inconsistent evidence of harmful effect,” said Dr. Lawrence Appel of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.