Many people turn to decaf coffee as a healthier alternative to regular coffee, thinking it’s free from the effects of caffeine. But there’s a hidden danger in decaf coffee that we need to talk about. Functional medicine experts work to help individuals better their health with the inclusion of healthy lifestyle choices and the exclusion of dangerous chemicals. In decaf coffee, the methylene chloride chemical needs to acknowledged and addressed.
What is Methylene Chloride?
Methylene chloride is a chemical used to strip away caffeine from coffee beans. It’s great at dissolving different chemicals but can be pretty nasty for our health. When it gets into our bodies, it changes into carbon monoxide and formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is especially bad because it can cause cancer. Studies on animals have shown that methylene chloride can hurt the liver, brain, and might even cause cancer.
How Much is Too Much?
The FDA says that foods shouldn’t have more than 10 parts per million (ppm) of methylene chloride. That’s like saying if you had a million tiny pieces of food, only ten of them could be methylene chloride. Even though this chemical evaporates easily, some of it can still stick around in decaf coffee.
Who Should Be Concerned?
Decaf coffee is often chosen by people who are extra careful with their health, like pregnant women, folks with heart problems, or those with issues in their nervous system. So, it’s really important to make sure decaf coffee is actually safe for everyone.
In 2022, the Clean Label Project did a secret test on 17 decaf coffees. Good news: all of them were below the FDA’s limit for methylene chloride. But one was almost at the top limit, and two others weren’t far behind.
Why We Should Keep an Eye on It
Just because something is under the known safe limit doesn’t mean it’s totally okay. If something is known to be harmful, it’s still a risk no matter how little there is. We should always be checking up on chemicals like methylene chloride to make sure they’re safe. We should listen to different opinions about chemicals we think are safe right now, like hexane in soybean oil. Just because we use them a lot doesn’t mean they can’t hurt us.
What Can We Do Instead?
If caffeine avoidance or minimization is the goal, drinking half a cup of healthy coffee, or diluting the regular brew, could be an easy and reasonable alternative. Remember, any coffee, decaf or regular, has a lot of issues outside of caffeine. Pesticide use, mold growth residue, and micro-plastics are all concerns to screen for when selecting your regular brew.
If you’re reaching for regular or half-caff for the energetic benefit, consider that there’s an underlying reason for your fatigue. Working with a certified functional medicine provider and local naturopathic doctor can help you get to the root cause of why you are lacking energy, and guide you to individualized treatment options.
So next time you reach for a cup of decaf, remember that it’s not just about cutting out caffeine. There’s more to the story, and it’s up to us to stay informed and make smart choices for our health.
Our licensed naturopathic medical doctor (NMD) and certified functional medicine physician offers comprehensive naturopathic health consultations in Meridian / Boise, Idaho. Free discovery calls are available!
