Coffee beans that are darkly roasted a deep brown provide a more powerful antioxidant benefit, a new study has found.
Food science researchers at the University of British Columbia in Canada say the most antioxidants in coffee are produced when the green-colored beans are browned at high temperatures.
Lead author Yazheng Liu and colleague Professor David Kitts looked at what is called the “Maillard reaction” — the chemical reaction triggered by cooking foods, in this case during the roasting of coffee beans.
They found that the compounds produced during the roasting process are where coffee’s antioxidants come from. Prior research has suggested they originate in either the caffeine or other ingredients.
“Previous studies suggested that antioxidants in coffee could be traced to caffeine or the chlorogenic acid found in green coffee beans,” Liu said in a statement. “Our results clearly show that the Maillard reaction is the main source of antioxidants.”
Antioxidants have been showed to bolster the immune system and slow the aging process, among other benefits. They help to eliminate free radicals, which are the damaging end products produced during metabolism.
The findings, to be published in Food Research International, showed that “coffee beans lose 90 percent of their chlorogenic acid during the roasting process,” Kitts said in a statement.
The Maillard reaction was named for the French chemist Louis-Camille Maillard, who in the 1900s studied the effects of heat on proteins, sugars and carbohydrates in food, as in when steak is barbecued or bread is toasted.
Prior research has had mixed results. Some studies have found that antioxidant levels are higher in dark-brown coffee beans, while some have found they’re lower and others have concluded that the best antioxidants come from medium-roast coffee.
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