Seriously~ Instant coffee is very harmful, don't drink it~

I believe many of my friends always have large bags of instant coffee in the office.

I would like to advise everyone: stop drinking instant coffee, not because it is not high-end, but because it is not real coffee at all and is very unhealthy.

How did instant coffee come about?

The invention of instant coffee is much earlier than you think. In 1890, New Zealander David Strang invented the earliest instant coffee and registered a patent. In 1901, Kato Satori, a Japanese scientist working in Chicago, USA, made improvements. After that, American George Washington (no relation to the founding father of the United States) invented the technology of mass production of instant coffee and launched it on the market in 1910.

George Washington Instant Coffee Ad

But the real development of modern instant coffee technology was in 1938. In order to deal with the problem of coffee bean surplus, the Brazilian government cooperated with Nestlé to develop a more advanced spray drying method for instant coffee manufacturing. The specific method is to use hot steam to evaporate the water in the coffee bean extract, leaving a dry extract, which can be quickly dissolved in hot water, and it takes up less space and volume during storage and transportation, and is more durable, so it is widely popular in the mass market.

Nestle coffee advertisement

Instant coffee was first widely used on the battlefields of World War II. Allied soldiers used instant coffee as a daily drink, which was both convenient and refreshing, and also made instant coffee popular around the world.

What's the difference between instant coffee and coffee?

First of all, the raw materials for instant coffee are mainly "low-end" Robusta coffee beans (because of their bitter taste and high caffeine content), and only diseased, broken, deformed and discarded beans are used to produce instant coffee. Of course, some "fine instant coffee" have appeared in recent years, but the overall situation has not changed, and the lowest-quality coffee beans are still used to produce instant coffee.

Secondly, the coffee beans used to produce instant coffee are often not roasted enough and remain at a relatively early stage, unable to fully bring out their aroma.

Finally, when using high-temperature steam extraction, most of the aromatic substances in the coffee disappear. Most manufacturers add flavors during the extraction, concentration or drying process to make up for the lost aroma.

Therefore, instant coffee is roughly equivalent to artificially extracted bitter spices. The nutrients of natural coffee beans are basically destroyed, and there is no natural aroma and mellow taste.

Even worse is "Coffee-mate"!

Instant coffee itself is almost considered "junk food", but what is even more junk is the so-called "coffee creamer", including various "three-in-one" instant coffees, which are instant coffee mixed with sugar and coffee creamer.

Coffee mate, also known as "creamer", mainly consists of hydrogenated vegetable oil, corn syrup, casein, spices, food coloring, etc. Its function is to increase the milk flavor in food and replace pure dairy products to reduce costs.

The original intention of hydrogenated vegetable oil is to reduce the unsaturation of vegetable oil so that it can remain solid and facilitate production and processing. However, due to the high temperature and high pressure conditions required in production, a large part of the unhydrogenated vegetable oil is converted from its natural cis structure to a trans structure and becomes trans fatty acids.

The hazards of trans fatty acids include: ① Inhibiting growth and development, making it easy for fetuses and children to suffer from essential fatty acid deficiency. ② Inducing cardiovascular disease, it will increase the content of low-density lipoprotein in the blood and reduce the content of high-density lipoprotein. ③ It is easy to cause fat accumulation and lead to obesity. ④ It will induce the expression of proto-oncogenes and lead to cancer.

Among these, the harm to cardiovascular system is particularly great. People who consume trans fatty acids are more likely to suffer from heart diseases such as coronary heart disease or obesity than the general population.