Filtered coffee friendlier to the heart.

A strong cup of java can do more than give the heart a jolt. Depending on how it's made, coffee can also elevate blood concentrations of cholesterol and triglycerides -- compounds tied to the formation of artery-clogging plaque.

Last year, Martijn B. Katan of the Agricultural University in Wageningen, the Netherlands, and his coworkers identified the agents responsible: cafestrol and perhaps kahweol -- alcohols in the oil droplets that can float atop a rich cup of coffee. Now, Katan's group reports that ingesting coffee grounds -- such as the sediment that can remain suspended in French press, espresso, and Turkish or Greek coffees -- can jack up the cholesterol of even healthy young adults.

In one test, 14 volunteers ate a sweet dairy dessert at the same time every day. However, half the group mixed 8 grams of finely pulverized, used grounds into the dessert before eating it. That hefty daily dose corresponds to the sediment from about 1.5 liters of Turkish coffee.

Within 3 weeks, cholesterol had climbed an average of 25 milligrams per deciliter of blood in persons eating grounds, but it remained unchanged in those who ate their dessert plain. During a second, 4-week test, 15 volunteers experienced comparable cholesterol gains whether they consumed fine or coarse grounds. Katan's group published its findings in the January AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NUTRITION.

But coffee lovers, take heart. While the researchers argue that "frequent ingestion of coffee bean particles . . . or turbid coffee brews [such as Turkish] should be avoided," they report that paper filters used in most drip brewers reduce those cholesterol-raising alcohols in coffee to "negligible amounts."