The search for the ultimate coffee product
Upgraded coffee is the highest quality coffee that is being sold. It is part of the Bulletproof and has been invented by Dave Asprey. The most important aspects of the Bulletproof Diet are its preference for premium quality ingredients while simultaneously avoiding toxic substances and molds. These preferences also apply to coffee. Asprey has investigated and researched coffee for a decade in order to create the best production process for coffee. Coffee consumption has an enormous array of benefits. For optimal performance then, it would then be best to limit the negatives aspects of coffee consumption as much as possible.
Upgraded coffee is the highest quality coffee
Most people will not drink coffee because they think that coffee will inadvertently cause a crash. Asprey himself had a lot of problems with the crash that is associated with coffee. Another of coffee’s problems is that it might be too stimulating. Overstimulation by coffee (or other stimulants) is commonly called “jitters”, and jitters are often accompanied anxious feelings. In order to decrease the jittery and over-stimulatory feelings associated with coffee, Asprey uses a new and different production process. In other words, “upgraded coffee” is made in a very different manner than regular coffee, in order to decrease the downsides of coffee. Both jitters and the crash are avoided with “upgraded coffee”. But why does regular coffee have all these downsides?
The problem with mold within coffee
Many categories of foods have structural problems with molds. These food categories are not suited if you’re interested in the highest physical and mental performance. An example of a food that has mold problems would be herbs that are kept in kitchen cupboards for too long, which develops toxic molds after being kept there for a few months. Molds develop even faster when you keep the containers in an area that is exposed to heat and moisture from the cooking process. For that reason, the Bulletproof Diet recommends using fresh spices as much as possible. Another example of a chronical mold-contaminated food category would be cheese. The cheese itself is created by using molds within its ripening and is therefore not an optimal food choice within the Bulletproof diet. Other examples would be grains (with a long shelf life), maize, coffee and alcoholic drinks like wine. A quarter of the world’s grains, for example, have been contaminated by molds. Furthermore, regular coffee has even more mold problems in comparison with grains. Another problem with the molds within coffee is that they are hard to observe, contrary to molds in meat and vegetables. With meat and vegetables, one can see mold with the naked eye. Furthermore, fresh meat and vegetables cannot be stored for weeks. As coffee can be stored for years, it has mold problems emerging without one’s knowledge.
How big is the mold problem with regular coffee?
A recent study investigated a random sample of green coffee beans in Brazil and concluded that more than 90% of green coffee beans were contaminated with mold. There was no difference between regular or organic coffee beans. Organically produced coffee is not automatically free of toxic molds.
These molds are also called mycotoxins. Even in the 1980’s, mycotoxins have been stipulated by the scientific literature as a problem within the food chain. While the roasting process of green coffee beans reduces mycotoxins with 70 to 80%, another problem that is associated with the roasting process is that it reduces the number of antioxidants within the coffee. Hence, the more a bean is roasted, the lower the antioxidant count. Furthermore, as the mycotoxins themselves are killed by the roasting process, the toxic residues will still remain within the beans. Hence, the influences of mycotoxins can still be felt even if the bean is roasted to a great extent. To get great coffee then, the development of mycotoxins has to be curbed from the very start.
Mycotoxins do not have positive effects on the health of humans. Long-term exposure to mycotoxins can create health problems. To illustrate these problems, I will use two different mycotoxins as an example. A commonly found mycotoxin within coffee is Aflatoxin B1. Aflatoxin causes cancer in the long term. Another commonly found mycotoxin would be Ochratoxin A, which is even more problematic. Ochratoxin A causes problems by a mechanism whereby it damages DNA. Ochratoxin A does not only cause cancer but also damages the brain and kidneys. Besides Ochratoxin A and Aflatoxin B1, many other mycotoxins can be found and identified within regular coffee. These other mycotoxins will not be treated within this article. The examples of Aflatoxin B1 and Ochratoxin A were only used to illustrate the health problems associated with mycotoxins.
One mechanism by which mycotoxins influence performance would be creating an immune reaction within the when a foodstuff that contains mycotoxins are consumed. The body will have a “fight or flight” and will have lower amounts of energy left for higher functioning such as deliberate thinking processes. The Bulletproof diet is all about stimulating these higher order thinking processes. Examples of higher order thinking processes would be making difficult or thinking hard about how to solve a difficult logical problem. These processes become more difficult if you have a fight or flight response. Energy is directed towards the immune reaction, instead of towards higher order thinking processes.
The production process of “upgraded coffee” vs regular coffee
There are many different production processes to make coffee. These production processes all influence mycotoxin development within coffee beans in a different way. That’s why we will now delineate the production process of regular coffee as well as “Upgraded Coffee”, in order to give you more insight as why Upgraded Coffee is different.
The oldest and most traditional method to create coffee is by drying the coffee beans in the sun. When coffee is harvested, the green coffee beans are contained within coffee berries. Coffee berries are cleaned and placed in the sun in order to dry. Overripe and damaged berries are discarded. The drying process might take up to four weeks in order to get the right humidity within the coffee. The dried coffee berries are then stored until they are needed for the market. Before the berries are sold to the market, the green bean inside is separated from the berry.
Another production process would be wet processing. The coffee berries are subsumed and damaged or overripe beans will come to the surface of the water. Damaged or overripe berries will be discarded. Within the wet process, the green beans will be separated from the berries before they are dried. The fermentation process that is used causes mycotoxins to develop. Within the wet process, the green beans will be roasted at a later moment. Sadly enough, the mycotoxins will have developed by then. As I argued earlier, roasting will not eliminate the problems of mycotoxins as toxic residues will still be present the coffee beans.
Upgraded Coffee uses none of the aforementioned methods. The coffee berries are harvested by hand. Only ripe berries will be selected within that process. Upgraded Coffee does not have a fermentation process by which mycotoxins could develop. The green coffee beans are finally separated from the berries by a new method, called “mechanical processing”. Within the production process of Upgraded Coffee, only the mechanical processing is used.
Advantages of “Upgraded Coffee” compared to regular coffee
The mechanical processing method gives a number of advantages for Upgraded Coffee. Firstly, the mechanical processing method will ensure that mycotoxin development will be kept at a bare minimum. The crash that ensues from regular coffee consumption, will not be present in Upgraded Coffee beans. For that reason, Upgraded Coffee will give stable energy for many hours (especially when combined with healthy fats), without a crash!
The second advantage of Upgraded Coffee beans is that they are produced at a 1250m altitude. This altitude limits the development of mycotoxins to an even greater extent.
A third advantage of Upgraded Coffee beans is that all coffee is produced at a single estate. All Upgraded Coffee can, therefore, be traced back to its original source. Regular coffee often combines coffee beans from many different estates, making the tracing process of the beans very hard. Furthermore, the Bulletproof estate does not use any pesticides or other chemicals within its production process. The use of pesticides is another enormous problem within the production process of regular coffee. Most regular coffee is not organic. Coffee is one of the plants that the biggest pesticide problem, as coffee is almost always placed on the top 10 crops with the highest pesticide use. Residues of these pesticides can be found in the final product. Upgraded Coffee does not have this problem, as the estate at which it is produced does not use any pesticides.
The final result: Helfi recommends Upgraded Coffee beans
The minimal development of mycotoxins because of a unique production process gives Upgraded Coffee beans the best profile for coffee that can be used for optimal mental and physical performance. Upgraded Coffee beans are organically produced, and can all be traced back to a single estate. For those reasons, Upgraded Coffee beans give the largest amount of coffee benefits, while minimizing coffee’s negative sides. Coffee’s many benefits will soon be discussed in a new article from LiveHelfi. LiveHelfi sells Upgraded Coffee for anyone that wants to increase performance.
Sources
[1] Ochratoxigenic fungi associated with green coffee beans (Coffea arabica L.) in conventional and organic cultivation in Brazil. de Fátima Rezende E, Borges JG, Cirillo M , Prado G, Paiva LC, Batista LR.
[2] Mycotoxins in coffee. Levi C
[3] The occurrence of ochratoxin A in coffee. Studer-Rohr I, Dietrich DR, Schlatter J, Schlatter C.
[4] The chemistry and biology of aflatoxin B(1): from mutational spectrometry to carcinogenesis. Smela ME, Currier SS, Bailey EA, Essigmann JM
[5] Ochratoxin A: An overview toxicity and carcinogenicity in animals and humans. Pfohl-Leszkowicz A, Manderville RA
[6] Mechanisms of mycotoxin-induced neurotoxicity through oxidative stress-associated pathways. Doi K, Uetsuka K.
[7] Does human ochratoxin A aggravate proteinuria in patients with ? Hsieh MF, Chiu HY, Lin-Tan DT, Lin JL.
[8] Upgraded Coffee, https://www.bulletproofexec.com/coffee/
