Does Coffee Raise Cholesterol? And What About Your Chai?

​

The quick answer, cup by cup

Which cup is safe when cholesterol is high

Does coffee raise cholesterol? Meet cafestol

Coffee beans contain an oily substance called cafestol. It is not caffeine. It is in the oil of the bean. Cafestol makes the liver put more bad cholesterol (LDL) into the blood. Roasting, grinding and the type of bean do not remove it. Only one thing does: a paper filter.

The trial. In the Netherlands, 64 adults were split into groups: no coffee, paper-filtered coffee, or unfiltered coffee, about 4 cups a day. After 11 weeks, the unfiltered group's bad cholesterol was 16 points higher than the filtered group's. The nutrition scientist who explained the study said: "For people with elevated LDL levels, it seems prudent to avoid drinking unfiltered coffee daily."

How much cafestol is in each cup (lab measurements, mg per cup):

• Boiled (Scandinavian style): about 2.4
• Turkish or Greek: about 3.1
• French press: about 2.8
• Espresso: about 1 to 1.2
• Drip, nylon filter: about 0.64
• Instant: about 0.2
• Drip, paper filter: about 0.08

Read that list once more. Instant coffee, the kind in most Indian homes, is near the bottom. That is good news. The coffee that raises cholesterol is the coffee where ground beans sit in hot water and nothing fine strains them out.

A 2025 Swedish lab test of office coffee machines found the same thing: paper-filtered coffee had about 12 mg of cafestol per litre, while some machine coffee had up to 444 mg per litre. The researcher's words: "the filtering process is crucial".

Filter coffee and cholesterol: the South Indian question

The word "filter" is the same. The filter is not.

Here is where we have to be honest. The South Indian "filter" is a steel plate with small holes. It is not paper. In the lab list above, a nylon filter let through about 8 times more cafestol than paper. A metal plate with holes has not been tested well. The nutrition scientist quoted above said it plainly: no one has tested whether wire mesh filters trap cafestol as well as paper does.

So we cannot tell you filter coffee is safe, and we cannot tell you it is harmful. What we can say:

• If your bad cholesterol is high, make filter coffee a once-a-day drink, not an all-day one.
• Use toned milk, not full-cream. Filter coffee is mostly milk.
• Cut sugar to half a spoon, then to none.
• If you want to be sure, put a paper filter inside the steel filter. It is a cheap test. If the taste is still good for you, the question is solved.

Is tea good for cholesterol?

10 trials, 411 adults (review in Clinical Nutrition, 2014). Black tea lowered bad cholesterol by about 4.64 mg/dL. Total cholesterol and good cholesterol did not change. The benefit looked larger in people who already had high cholesterol. The researchers said more work is needed to know if tea extract is better than the drink.

So the tea leaf is on your side, a little. Not enough to replace anything else, but tea is not the enemy. The enemy is what goes into the cup with it.

Chai and cholesterol: the real problem

Indian chai is a quarter cup of milk, 1 to 2 spoons of sugar, and a pinch of tea. Multiply by 4, 5 or 6 cups a day. Now look at what you drank:

Sugar matters for cholesterol because sugar pushes triglycerides up, and the Mayo Clinic lists sugar, white flour and alcohol as "particularly potent" at that. Milk fat is saturated fat, which raises bad cholesterol. Neither comes from the tea. Both come from the kitchen.

The fix is the milk packet, again. Switching the house from full-cream to toned milk halves the fat in every cup of chai, with no change in taste that most families notice after a week. Then bring the sugar down one quarter spoon at a time.

How many cups of chai a day

Count sugar, not cups.

WHO: free sugar under 10% of daily calories, and under 5% for extra benefit. Free sugar includes sugar, honey, jaggery and fruit juice.

ICMR-NIN 2024 guidelines for Indians: sugar under 5% of total energy.

On a 2,000 calorie day, 5% is 25 g, about 5 teaspoons. That is your whole day: chai, coffee, biscuits, mithai, everything.

Four cups of chai with 2 spoons each is 8 teaspoons. Already over the limit before a single biscuit. Two cups with half a spoon each is 1 teaspoon. That is a habit you can keep for life.

The old rules for your cup

Tea and coffee are not in the old books. Both came to India in the last few hundred years. Charaka and Sushruta never wrote about them. So there is no "Ayurvedic verdict" on chai or coffee, and anyone who gives you one is guessing. What the old books do have is rules about what goes into a hot cup.

Never put honey in hot chai. Charaka (Sutra Sthana, chapter 26) says honey must never be heated, and never taken with hot things. Many people swap sugar for honey "to be healthy" and stir it into boiling chai. That breaks the rule. If you want honey, take it in cool water, separately.

No sour with milk. Lemon tea is fine, without milk. Lemon in milk chai, or sour fruit with a milky coffee, is a bad pair in the old books.

Dahi and chai: not together. Dahi is a daytime food, taken mixed with something, never at night. A hot chai poured on top of a dahi lunch is heavy on the stomach by the old rules.

Fix your cup in 5 steps

1. Change the milk packet to toned. Every cup in the house gets better at once.
2. Sugar down a quarter spoon a week. In a month you are at half a spoon and do not miss it.
3. Pick your coffee by the filter. Instant and paper-filtered are fine. Boiled and French press are not daily drinks. Metal filter: once a day, or add a paper filter.
4. Cap chai at 2 to 3 cups. Replace the 4 pm cup with chaas in summer, or plain black or green tea in winter.
5. Watch the biscuit. Chai rarely comes alone. The maida biscuit or rusk with it is often worse than the chai.

Full-cream chai, 2 spoons sugar → Toned-milk chai, half spoon
French press coffee daily → Instant or paper-filtered
Honey stirred into hot chai → Sugar reduced, or no sweetener
4 pm chai with rusk → Chaas, or black tea with a few almonds

Does coffee raise cholesterol? Only the wrong cup. Does chai? Only the wrong milk and sugar.

Fix the cup, then fix the plate. Ayuvya's Care of Cholesterol juice is made from Ayurvedic herbs for daily support, and comes with a simple Indian diet chart that already has the chai rule in it. See Care of Cholesterol, or read is paneer bad for cholesterol for the full milk guide.

FAQ

Does coffee raise cholesterol?

Some coffee does. Coffee beans have an oily substance called cafestol that raises bad cholesterol. A paper filter traps it. In a Dutch trial, 64 adults drank about 4 cups a day for 11 weeks. The unfiltered group's bad cholesterol ended 16 points higher than the paper-filtered group's. Instant coffee has very little cafestol (about 0.2 mg a cup). Boiled, French press and Turkish coffee have the most (2 to 3 mg a cup). Espresso is in between.

Is South Indian filter coffee bad for cholesterol?

We cannot say for sure. South Indian filter coffee uses a metal filter with small holes, not paper. In lab tests, paper filters trapped almost all cafestol, while a nylon filter let about 8 times more through. Metal mesh filters have not been tested well. If your bad cholesterol is high, treat filter coffee as a once-a-day drink, not an all-day one, and keep the milk and sugar low.

Is tea good for cholesterol?

Plain black tea helps a little. A review of 10 trials with 411 adults found black tea lowered bad cholesterol by about 4.6 mg/dL. Total and good cholesterol did not change. The problem with Indian chai is not the tea leaf. It is the full-cream milk and the 2 spoons of sugar, 4 to 6 times a day. Fix those and chai is fine.

How many cups of chai a day are okay?

Count the sugar, not the cups. The WHO says free sugar should be under 10% of your daily calories, and under 5% is better. India's 2024 guidelines say under 5%. On a 2000 calorie day, 5% is 25 g, about 5 teaspoons. Four cups of chai with 2 spoons each is 8 teaspoons, already over the limit before any mithai. Two cups with half a spoon each, made with toned milk, is a safe habit.

Related reading: How to lower triglycerides · Jaggery vs sugar · Habits that raise cholesterol

This article is for general information. It is not medical advice. Sugar figures use 1 teaspoon = about 4 g and 5% of a 2,000 calorie day. Milk fat per cup is calculated from the legal minimum fat for each milk type and about 100 ml of milk per cup. If your cholesterol is high, talk to your doctor before changing or stopping any treatment.

Sources

1. Center for Science in the Public Interest, "Can caffeine raise your LDL cholesterol?" (Dutch trial of 64 adults, 11 weeks, LDL 16 points higher with unfiltered coffee; espresso filters about half the cafestol; wire mesh untested; quotes from Rob van Dam). cspi.org
2. Cafestol and kahweol content per cup by brewing method (Urgert and colleagues, 1995), as tabulated in Nutrition Journal, 2011. nutritionj.biomedcentral.com
3. Iggman D and colleagues, Uppsala University. Cafestol in coffee machines, Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, 2025 (as reported by ZME Science: paper-filtered about 12 mg/L, machine up to 444 mg/L). zmescience.com
4. Zhao Y, Asimi S, Wu K, Zheng J, Li D. Black tea consumption and serum cholesterol concentration: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Clinical Nutrition, 2014 (10 trials, 411 adults, LDL −4.64 mg/dL), as reported by FoodNavigator. foodnavigator.com
5. World Health Organization. Guideline: sugars intake for adults and children, 2015 (free sugars under 10%, ideally under 5%). who.int
6. ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024, as reported by South First (sugar under 5% of total energy). thesouthfirst.com
7. Mayo Clinic. Triglycerides: why do they matter? (sugar, white flour and alcohol "particularly potent"). mayoclinic.org
8. Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India. Milk standards (full cream 6% fat, toned 3%). consumeraffairs.nic.in
9. Charaka Samhita, Sutra Sthana 26 (honey never heated or with hot things; sour with milk), Sutra Sthana 7 (dahi rules). carakasamhitaonline.com