What is the healthiest coffee? 1 key addition can help coffee drinkers live longer

Our thirst for coffee just keeps growing, as does the variety of ways to drink it. The beverage comes with a bold aroma and stimulating taste. A cup of the caffeine-rich brew gets the heart pumping and is essential for many people in the morning.

Three-quarters of U.S. adults drink coffee during the week, according to the National Coffee Association.

In a poll, two-thirds of Americans say it improves mental focus, and 46% believe it boosts physical endurance.

Coffee also comes with impressive health benefits and is a “remarkable source of antioxidants,” studies have found.

“The consensus overall is, in moderation, coffee is considered to be one of the superfoods that most of us have in our diet,” Beth Czerwony, a registered dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Human Nutrition, tells TODAY.com.

“Coffee comes from beans. Beans are a plant and so the antioxidants that come from beans are these polyphenols,” or compounds that plants use for self-defense, which seem to benefit human health as well, she explains.

Polyphenols help with inflammation, so they may be protective against inflammatory diseases like heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and dementia, Czerwony notes. Coffee also has a beneficial impact on liver health, mood and immune function.

Coffee comes in many varieties, as anyone who’s ever pondered the menu at a café knows.

Given different coffee beans, roasts and brewing methods, what is the healthiest type of coffee? Here’s what dietitians say:

Filtered vs. unfiltered coffee

Filtering coffee is healthier than drinking it unfiltered, according to a study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. This one key step in the brewing routine can help coffee drinkers live longer.

People who drank coffee that passed through a paper filter had lower rates of death from heart disease than those who drank it unfiltered — likely because the filter catches cholesterol-raising compounds in coffee known as diterpenes, the authors reported.

There are about 30 times more diterpenes in unfiltered, brewed coffee than filtered coffee, the study noted. They are known to raise "bad" LDL cholesterol.

“You should use a coffee filter — some kind of filtering method,” Nancy Mazarin, a registered dietitian in in Great Neck, New York, tells TODAY.com.

“It filters out these cholesterol-raising chemicals and particles, but it allows antioxidants to pass through, and the antioxidants are what’s beneficial.”

Light roast vs. dark roast coffee

Lighter roasts contain more antioxidants than dark roasts because of the way they’re processed, Czerwony says.

“The longer coffee is roasted, and the darker it gets, it kind of burns off some of those antioxidants. So the lighter roasts are going to reap the most of the health benefits,” she notes.

On the other hand, lighter roasts are higher in acidity, so someone with an acid condition may prefer a medium roast that’s in between light and dark, Mazarin notes.

“You’re getting a little more antioxidants (than dark roast), but much less acid (than light roast),” she says.

Hot brewed coffee vs. cold brew

Hot brewed is the coffee produced when hot water is used to make the beverage — when you use a drip coffee maker or make a pour-over cup, for example.

Cold brew coffee is made from coffee grounds steeped in cold or room temperature water for at least 12 hours, “creating a mellower, smoother beverage,” as TODAY.com previously reported.

Cold brew has less acid than drip coffee, so it can be a better choice for people with acid reflux or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), Czerwony says.

But hot brewed coffee contains more antioxidants because the high brewing temperature helps to release them from the grounds, both experts note.

Instant vs. brewed coffee

They have similar health benefits, though instant coffee — which is made from dried coffee extract — is a bit more processed than the traditional coffee beans, Czerwony says.

Instant coffee may have more antioxidants and caffeine than other brews, studies have found.

But it also contains more acrylamide, a chemical that can form during roasting and is considered a concern to human health, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Still, you’d have to drink a lot of instant coffee for acrylamide to impact health, Czerwony notes, so it’s not something she would necessarily warn people against.

Decaf vs. regular coffee

The antioxidant health benefits remain even when coffee is decaffeinated, both dietitians say.

Drinking either regular or decaffeinated coffee is associated with a longer life, with both types of coffee reducing in the risk of heart disease and death from it, researchers reported in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

“Caffeine is the most well-known constituent in coffee, but the beverage contains more than 100 biologically active components,” said study author Peter Kistler, a professor at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia, in a statement.

“It is likely that the non-caffeinated compounds were responsible for the positive relationships observed between coffee drinking, cardiovascular disease and survival.”

Some people have very low tolerance for caffeine, but still want to drink coffee so decaf makes sense for them, Mazarin notes.

Black coffee vs. coffee with cream and sugar

Black coffee has the most health benefits without the extra calories and fat from additions like cream, sugar, flavored syrups and sweetened foams, which turn it into a “dessert in a mug,” Mazarin says.

“A lot of people just don’t like coffee that much. What they really like is having a milkshake,” she notes.

Try adding healthy spices like cinnamon, nutmeg or cardamom, which come with their own antioxidants, to coffee to experiment with different flavors without adding calories, Czerwony advises.

What is the healthiest coffee to drink?

It seems to be hot brewed, filtered coffee made from light roast beans and consumed black without adding cream or sweeteners.

“If somebody wants the ultimate, the best, that’s exactly what they want to look for,” Czerwony says.

If possible, grind your own beans right before making coffee rather than buying pre-ground coffee, to cut down on oxidation of the beans, Mazarin says.

Stick to 400 milligrams of caffeine a day, or about two to three 12-ounce cups of coffee, which appears to be safe for most adults, the FDA advises.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com