Milk Coffee Protects Body From Infections

Anastasia Zhukova

There are legends about the benefits and harms of coffee. However, neither the first nor the second is able to stop the "coffee lovers" of the whole Earth in their love for an invigorating drink. And today, businessmen and "workaholics" can be pleased with the great news: coffee with milk is most likely not only not harmful, but also extremely healthy.

 Drinking reasonable amounts of a tonic drink, "whitewashed" with milk, can significantly enhance the anti-inflammatory effect that coffee has on the body. Inflammation is a common and varied problem for a person. They arise from the body's fight against disease. Because of them, muscles and tendons hurt if you did too many approaches in training. And in them lies the cause of the unpleasant symptoms of various diseases - for example, rheumatoid arthritis.

However, nature never gives a problem without a solution. Polyphenols, antioxidant substances found in plants, fruits and vegetables, help us cope with inflammation. Polyphenols inhibit the processes that lead to the destruction and inflammation of cells - therefore, they are considered useful substances that prevent the development of certain diseases and slow down the wear and tear of the body.

 Polyphenols include coffee components such as caffeic acid and chlorogenic acid. Previously, there was an opinion that mixing an invigorating drink with milk destroys the anti-inflammatory effect of coffee, since the main milk protein, casein, binds coffee polyphenols as a result of a chemical reaction, preventing them from penetrating into cells and realizing their function.

But scientists from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), having studied the properties of coffee polyphenols and their interaction with milk protein, came to the opposite conclusion, which was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

It turned out that adding milk to coffee not only does not harm the beneficial properties of the drink, but also doubles them! So far, experiments have been carried out on immune cells in which inflammation has been artificially induced. Then the first group of affected cells were offered pure polyphenols as "drugs". The second group of cells was "treated" with the notorious "coffee with milk": polyphenols that reacted with the constituent parts of protein molecules - amino acids.

As a result, it was the group of cells treated with “coffee with milk” that coped with inflammation twice as effectively as cells that were “treated” with polyphenols without impurities, which is comparable to drinking black coffee. Mixing polyphenols with amino acids in artificial conditions is, of course, good. But would the same reaction take place in a regular cup of morning coffee with milk? Scientists also confidently answered this question: it will. 

Those who can’t stand coffee can’t be upset either (and it would be nice for “coffee lovers” to remember that coffee with milk is a very high-calorie drink). Experts believe that a similar “pumping” of polyphenols with amino acids is likely to occur in other dishes where food containing polyphenols is combined with protein: for example, in meat with vegetables and fruit or vegetable smoothies with milk or yogurt. A similar reaction can occur in tea with milk, since tea contains polyphenols along with coffee. 

From "in vitro" testing, scientists plan to switch to experiments on the effects of "advanced" polyphenols in animals. Using the information received, the experts also plan to develop the most productive way to encapsulate polyphenols in protein structures so that beneficial substances are fully absorbed by the body and give an effective anti-inflammatory effect. 

-- Pravda.ru