Boiled coffee does not increase serum cholesterol in gerbils and hamsters.

In contrast to drip filter coffee, boiled coffee increases the serum cholesterol level in man. To identify the substance(s) responsible for this effect, it is necessary to find an animal model sensitive to boiled coffee. In this study, three groups of 20 male gerbils and three groups of six male hamsters were fed a control diet or a control diet supplemented with either freeze-dried boiled coffee or freeze-dried filtered coffee. At the end of the 5-week feeding period serum cholesterol levels were not different in either species fed the different diets. These results suggest that these animal species are not sensitive to boiled coffee, or that the cholesterol-raising factor in boiled coffee is lost during the process of freeze-drying.