Dark Roasted Coffee May Better Protect against Oxidative Stress
Following on from news that coffee tops the food chart in terms of its antioxidant potential, research from Canada has suggested that dark roasting coffee may help to maximise its free radical scavenging ability.
Food scientists from the University of British Columbia say that their investigation demonstrates that roasting coffee beans until they reach a dark brown colour produces the antioxidant benefits that have been associated with slowing down the ageing process.
Student, Yazheng Ya-Jang, alongside co-author of the study, Professor David Kitts, assessed the unique and complex combination of chemical compounds that are made during the dark roasting, or browning process. The pair suggest that roasting the coffee beans using high temperatures is what actually creates the antioxidants.
The researchers are unsure about previous studies that pinpoint the chlorogenic acid or caffeine present in green coffee beans as the source of antioxidants and claim that 90 per cent of chlorogenic acid is lost as a result of roasting. The results of this latest study into coffee’s antioxidant potential are due to be published in Food Research International, an industry journal.
Meanwhile in January of this year, an investigation into roasted coffee’s antioxidant content conducted in the Philippines proposed that it is actually the more lightly roasted coffee beans have the highest phenolic content and antioxidant activity. This was the outcome of a comparison of coffees roasted to differing degrees, with medium to dark roast samples demonstrating a reduction in such content, according to this particular study.