Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

>Coffee drinkers have been found to have lower cadmium in tissues; coffee making removes heavy metals from water.

How does that work? Where do the metals go?

Searching in the rest of the article I find:

>Coffee drinkers, for example, have been found to have lower levels of cadmium in their kidneys than people who don’t use coffee, and coffee is known to inhibit the absorption of iron by the intestine, helping to prevent iron overload.

I'm immediately suspicious of the way this is framed (I know many people who suffer from lack of iron, I guess they should avoid coffee). And what about the heavy metals then?




Phenols/catechols in general tend to reduce (in the electron sense) and complex with metals. This can be anti-nutrious if binding iron or calcium, or beneficial, if binding heavy metals.


Coffee grounds are a crude form of activated charcoal, which is used to bind up metals and other toxic substances.


Yes, this is indeed a weird way to frame the effect of coffee on iron absorption. There's a lot of medical litterature about how coffee often play a role in iron deficiency.


Presumably the metals are absorbed by the grounds.


Perhaps the diuretic effect of caffeine contributes to the flushing out of all things, some heavy metals included?


The beans, I'd imagine.




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: