This was discovered by a Danish research team who studied what happens when we mix a little milk with coffee.
Adding milk to coffee can have an anti-inflammatory effect.
Something as simple as adding a little milk to your coffee can it have an anti-inflammatory effect? Apparently yes, according to a research team from the University of Copenhagen who studied what happens when we mix the compounds of these two drinks. The combination of milk proteins with the antioxidants of coffee, one of the richest dietary sources of antioxidants, doubles the anti-inflammatory effect on human cells.
In previous studies, the researchers had already demonstrated that antioxidants and, in particular, polyphenols bind to the proteins contained in various foods, and in another recent study they have verified whether this reaction occurs in macchiato coffee. “In fact, it happens so quickly that it was hard to avoid” explained Professor Marianne Nissen Lund of the Department of Food Sciences of the University of Copenhagen, who headed the study which evaluated the effect of polyphenols when combined with amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.
Adding a little milk to coffee doubles the anti-inflammatory effect
The new analysis, just published in the Journal of Agricolcoltural and Food Chemistry, showed that immune cells treated with a combination of polyphenols and amino acids were twice as effective at reducing the inflammatory response than cells treated with polyphenols alone. In other words, they are twice as good at fighting inflammation compared to cells to which polyphenols alone have been added.
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“Observing this effect in laboratory experiments prompts us to understand the health benefits in more detail – said Professor Andrew Williams of the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences of the University of Copenhagen, who is also the study’s senior author -. So, the next step will be to study the effects in animals”.
For scholars it is not difficult to imagine that the reaction and the anti-inflammatory effect occur even when other foods are combined made up of protein, fruit or vegetables.
“We believe that something similar happens, for example, in a dish of meat accompanied by vegetables, or in a fruit smoothie, when we add proteins such as milk or yogurt” added Nissen Lund who, demonstrating the potentiation of the inhibitory effect on inflammation in laboratory cell lines, clearly suggests that this beneficial effect can also be exerted live. “We will now investigate further, first in animals. Next, we hope to receive research funding that will allow us to study the effect in humansNissen Lund concluded.