Q&A 412: Is Cholesterol In Coffee Bad (& How To Make Your Coffee As Healthy As Possible), What To Do About Low Progesterone, How Carbs Impact Your Immune System & Much More!

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Listener Q&A:

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) vs. Exercise With Oxygen Therapy (EWOT)…45:11

Jeremiah asks: I understand that LiveO2 has an advantage over traditional hyperbaric chambers because of how fast it delivers oxygen without needing to spend so much time inside a chamber, but I wanted to ask if you see any benefit to using a hyperbaric chamber in combination with a LiveO2 device. Are there any unique benefits to the chambers you can't get with a LiveO2?

In my response, I recommend:

Tips on increasing progesterone levels…57:55

Sarah asks: Ben, I've been following your work for many years. I've purchased all your books, am a cold shower junkie, all of the above… It seems that no matter how closely I follow your guidance and recommendations or what I'm doing training-wise, I've had to take bioidentical hormones for progesterone for the past 6 years because my body doesn't seem to be able to make it on its own. I'm only 28 years old, and I find that I'm super sensitive to stress and that any type of stressor in my life will halt my progesterone production. I've tried numerous endocrinologists and female physicians and no seems to have an answer for it. Do you have any tips or experience with this?

In my response, I recommend:

Do Jaw Exercisers Work?…1:12:14

Matt asks: Hi Ben, I'm hoping you can shed some light on the efficacy and science behind jaw exercisers. I don't want to mention any specific brands, but I'm sure you're familiar with them. They've always intrigued me, and I'd love your opinion on them.

In my response, I recommend:


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9 thoughts on “Q&A 412: Is Cholesterol In Coffee Bad (& How To Make Your Coffee As Healthy As Possible), What To Do About Low Progesterone, How Carbs Impact Your Immune System & Much More!

  1. Dena K says:

    I would guess where the majority of us would get this unfiltered coffee would be from Keurig’s and the like. My cholesterol levels do respond to whether I drink unfiltered or filtered coffee, but at work we use a Keurig rather than a standard drip coffee maker. I just went online and found they do actually make tiny paper filters for Keurigs so I may start using those.

  2. Jessica says:

    Hi Ben,

    I appreciate you mentioning the negative effects of instant coffee and how it effects the nervous system. I have a family member who has an AVM. He has seizures regularly, but he realized when he was drinking instant coffee his seizures were a lot worse. Once he stopped drinking it they went down significantly. This information is so important and unfortunately not very well known. Love your podcast, thanks Ben!

  3. Meg says:

    Hey Ben, just a couple fact check requests for you… I believe I heard you say that dark roast coffee contains more caffeine than lighter roasts. The coffee enema support group says that light roasts have more caffeine, and this has definitely been my observation as well. Also, you mentioned that fasting isn’t good for viruses, but okay for colds — but colds are caused by viruses.

  4. Matt S says:

    Regarding the conversation on filtered vs. unfiltered coffee: this usually (always?) refers to the presence or absence of a paper filter. “Unfiltered” would therefore usually refers to French press, but would also apply to an Aeropress with a metal filter. I would assume it would also include espressos and Americanos, although these aren’t usually referenced in studies because most people don’t consume these on a regular basis (unless you are in Italy, where daily espressos are the norm). “Unfiltered” does not refer to “cowboy coffee”…who drinks that anyway!

  5. Kimberly says:

    This is very strange….coffee does not contain cholesterol unless you add animal products to it. There’s a difference between containing (“in”) and affecting. Hopefully this is recognized to avoid confusion.

  6. London McDougal says:

    Arabica is the most popular coffee in the world and is lighter in flavor, caffeine and tends to be sweater. Robusta is a harsh bitter-tasting plant and is rarely used for traditional coffee like drip, french press, espresso, and so on. Robusta has higher caffeine and is actually fairly difficult to find in places like America. Light roasted coffee always has more caffeine than darker roasted coffee. Although, since dark roast weights less, overall you need more beans to equal the same weight per cup (avg 25g). So the brewed coffee will come out to be roughly the same amount of caffeine.

    Light roast is almost always better for flavor and delivering a complex cup. Studies have shown that darker roasted coffees do not have as many antioxidants. Since the producers of dark roasted coffee are planning to roast the coffee so dark it’s burnt in flavor. They will buy low-grade green beans and store them for extremely long times both before and after the roasting process. Many light roasted coffees use high-grade green coffee (scores of 83 or greater) and use them as soon as possible. The processing of these green coffees is also more traditional and offers a cleaner more flavorful cup. Some will even ferment the coffee cherries with the bean still instead in rivers near the farm to help developed the coffee further in flavor.

    Go light, go local, go clean!

    1. Matt S says:

      Excellent points. I will say though that robusta isn’t that hard to find in America; there are plenty of blends and coffees not labeled as “100% Arabica” that contain some amounts of robusta beans.

  7. Ann says:

    Awesome podcast, as always! Thanks, guys!

    I use Foursigmatic Lion’s Mane coffee everyday. Is the coffee in this instant coffee? And should I be concerned about acrylamide?

    1. Peter says:

      Four Sigmatic ground Lion’s mane coffee is not instant, but the individual packets do contain instant coffee. I wonder if there is a process to make instant coffee with less acrylamide.

      From Four Sigmatic:
      “After carefully roasting and brewing the beans, we concentrate the coffee by evaporation, and finish it off by spray-drying it into a pure instant powder. We come from Finland and Finnish people drink more coffee than anyone else in the world. So we take this stuff seriously. We even have a 3rd party lab test each batch for purity. You’ll get 50 mg of caffeine per serving.”

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