Get the Most from Your Morning Brew

Q: You've mentioned that coffee can help you live longer and be healthier. Can you get these benefits from instant coffee, or only from brewed?
-- Kerri, Whitby, Ontario

A: Although instant java is highly processed, the caffeine and some of the healthy polyphenols found in brewed coffee are preserved because instant starts its life as brewed coffee. Really, instant is just brewed coffee that's either been freeze- or spray-dried until the liquid is gone. But some of the polyphenols and the taste go, too; how much depends on which beans, what brewing process, and which drying method are used.

However, there's a healthy twist to this story: Although brewed-coffee drinkers curl their lips at instant, the instant crowd is actually getting two-thirds more fiber than filtered-coffee drinkers are. Believe it or not, a 12-ounce cup of instant contains about 3 grams of fiber, compared to about 1.8 grams in the same amount of brewed. Bonus: The fiber helps your body absorb those polyphenols (plant substances that help your body help itself). So if you prefer instant, drink up, and laugh off the coffee snobs. They don't know what they're missing.

Q: I like nondairy creamer or soy milk in my coffee and tea, but I've heard they wipe out the antioxidants in these drinks. Is that true?
-- Deanna, Lowell, Michigan

A: We're sure that certain cream substitutes "kill" at least some of the healthy compounds in coffee and tea. They contain casein, a common protein in milk, which binds coffee and tea polyphenols, substantially lessening the benefits of the noncaffeine part of the tea and coffee. While the data were very clear and impressive in four studies, other studies found no difference in the levels of polyphenols in tea (including green tea) when milk from cows, rice, or soy was added. In the studies where no difference was seen, maybe the casein had been removed, or maybe researchers measured things differently. But even if the healthy compounds are reduced more than the research suggests, you're still getting some, and you're far better off drinking tea rather than sugary sodas. Especially if you drink tea and coffee without sugar and only with skim milk.

So when it comes to coffee, the jury's still out on whether nondairy creamers have a big effect. But one thing is clear: You will get more healthful compounds to start with by -- surprise -- brewing a medium roast coffee rather than a dark one, like French or Italian roast.

Q: My parents (ages 65 and 68) have used a fat-free hazelnut creamer in their coffee every day for years. My mom was recently diagnosed with a fatty liver, and I believe the amount of heavily processed foods she eats is partly to blame. I'm trying to convince them to quit the creamer but can't find any real evidence that it's bad. Should I just relax and let them enjoy their morning coffee?
-- Anonymous

A: Save your battles for the rest of their diet. Liquid creamers aren't ideal -- they tend to have about 4 grams of added sugar -- but if your mother has only one cup of joe with creamer, it's probably not a significant contributor to her liver problems. But any added sugar is worse than none, so if you can get them off all processed foods, so much the better. Many processed foods basically freak out your liver, which doesn't understand how to metabolize them. Also, processed foods are usually loaded with simple sugar and syrups (including corn, malt, rice, and maple syrups -- those are just other words for sugar), so they invite weight gain. And extra weight means extra fat in the liver. Show your parents quick ways to replace processed foods with easy-to-make wholesome ones. Remind them that it's not any harder to dump lettuce into a bowl than to dump chips there, or to open a bag of baby carrots instead of a bag of cheese curls. Your parents' taste buds will adjust, and soon they'll prefer the flavor of real food to the taste of hydrogenated soybean oil and coloring agent Yellow No. 6.