INSTANT COFFEE AND CHOLESTEROL - A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

Objective: To test the effect of instant coffee on serum cholesterol. Design: A randomised controlled cross-over trial. Setting: Free-living healthy volunteers. Subjects: 312 were recruited, of whom 18 failed t o complete the trial and a further 33 were excluded because of breache s of the protocol, giving 261 whose results were analysed. Interventio n: Five cups of instant coffee daily for 6 weeks, versus no coffee for 6 weeks, the order of these periods being allocated at random. Main o utcome measures: The primary outcome measure was serum cholesterol con centration. Other outcome measures were apolipoproteins A-I and B, hig h-density lipoprotein cholesterol, plasma fibrinogen, mean platelet vo lume, while blood cell count. Results: A very small increase in serum cholesterol concentration with coffee (0.12 mmol/l; 95% c.i. 0.04-0.20 , P = 0.003). A correspondingly small rise occurred in the associated apolipoprotein B (1.69 mg/dl; 95% c.i. 0.40-2.98, P = 0.011). No chang es attributable to coffee occurred in the other variables measured, al though serum concentrations of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol an d the apolipoproteins tended to be higher after the second period of t he trial than after the first period, for no obvious reason. Conclusio ns: Instant coffee has only a marginal effect on serum cholesterol.