1 Heart disease
The relation between coffee and risk of cardiovascular disease has been examined in many studies, but the results remain controversial. Most studies have not found coffee consumption to be associated with significantly increased cardiovascular disease risk[23-24]. The strongest evidence for the suggestion that coffee is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease comes from the case control studies[25]. Coffee is a complex mixture of compounds that may have either beneficial or harmful effects on the cardiovascular system. On one hand, diterpenes cafestol and kahweol present in unfiltered coffee and caffeine each appear to increase risk of coronary heart disease. High quality studies (randomized controlled trials)[26-27] have confirmed the cholesterol-raising effect of diterpenes, which may contribute to the risk of coronary heart disease. On the other hand, a lower risk of heart disease among moderate coffee drinkers might be due to antioxidants found in coffee. Besides that, coffee consumption is also associated with an increase of plasma homocysteine, a risk factor for coronary heart disease[28-29]