Roasting a Gentler Cup of Coffee
Reported March 22, 2010
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Scientists have identified substances that may be responsible for brewing heartburn in every cup of coffee, and believe they may have found a way around the stomach irritation that prevents almost two out of every ten of us from enjoying that morning cup.
The report presented the counter-intuitive finding that espresso, French roast, and other dark-roasted coffee may be easier on the tummy because these roasts contain a substance that tells the stomach to reduce production of acid. This research could lead to a new generation of stomach-friendly brews with the rich taste and aroma of real coffee.
“This discovery is going to help a lot of people who suffer from coffee sensitivity,” Veronika Somoza, Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in Austria, and Thomas Hofmann, Ph.D. from the Technische Universität München in Germany, who conducted the study, were quoted as saying. “As coffee-lovers, we’re very excited about this research.”
An estimated 40 million people in the U.S. alone either cannot drink as much coffee as they like or avoid coffee altogether due to stomach irritation. Doctors think that chemicals in coffee cause the stomach to overproduce acid. Some coffee drinkers take antacids or drink decaffeinated coffee in an effort to counteract this effect. Others turn to a small but growing number of specialty coffee brews marketed as stomach friendly.
“The problem is that studies have not verified the stomach irritating potential of coffee or its components, until now,” said Somoza. “Manufacturers currently make ‘stomach friendly’ coffees by processing raw coffee beans with steam or solvents intended to reduce levels of the irritants. But their effectiveness is unclear.”
The processes used to produce stomach-friendly coffee also can reduce the amount of healthful substances in the coffee, including some that scientists have linked to protection against diabetes and heart disease, Somoza said. In addition, the processing can affect the robust taste and smell of coffee.
To study the irritants in coffee, the scientists exposed cultures of human stomach cells to a variety of different coffee preparations, including regular, dark-roast, mild, decaffeinated, and stomach-friendly. They identified several substances that appeared to trigger chemical changes associated with increased acid production.
However, the scientists also found that one of the coffee components, N-methylpyridium (NMP), seems to block the ability of the stomach cells to produce hydrochloric acid and could provide a way to reduce or avoid stomach irritation. Since NMP is generated only upon roasting and not found in raw coffee beans, darker-roasted coffees contain higher amounts of this stomach-friendly coffee ingredient. Dark- roasted coffee can potentially contain up to twice as much NMP as light-roasted coffees, but its levels can vary widely depending on the variety of coffee bean and the roasting method, Somoza noted.
“Since NMP is generated upon roasting, dark-roast coffees contain high amounts of this stomach friendly coffee ingredient,” Hofmann and Somoza said. “Now, there is hope for a good morning start with a freshly brewed cup of optimized stomach friendly coffee.”
SOURCE: Presented at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, San Francisco, March 21, 2010