A soluble analogue of coffee was invented at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries by the Japanese chemist Satori Kato. He was the first to introduce instant tea to the world, and then applied the technology to the production of instant coffee. However, the drink was not a success.

Later, in 1906, the Englishman-commercial J. Washington launched the production and sale of the drink. Instant coffee became an attribute of soldiers' rations during the First World War. Upon returning home, the soldiers preferred their usual instant coffee to natural coffee - it tasted great and the caffeine content was almost the same as natural coffee.

The final impetus for global recognition of instant coffee was the crisis in Brazil in the 1930s. The demand for natural coffee has sharply decreased, and an urgent solution was required to preserve the surplus crop. The Swiss company Nestle came to the rescue. Its specialists improved the product and introduced the public to the aromatic instant coffee that we know today.

The popular drink has low nutritional value and contains a decent amount of caffeine. Dry powder (100 g) contains from 94 to 110 kcal, while one cup of coffee without sugar contains only 2-10 kcal. However, few people like this option, preferring to generously season the energy drink with sugar. Standard coffee with 1 spoon of sugar already contains 40-100 kcal. And if you are a coffee lover with cream, one serving of the drink will contain up to 400 kcal (depending on the fat content of the cream).

How instant coffee is made

In the production of instant coffee, illiquid coffee beans that have lost their marketable appearance are used. The beans are roasted, ground and heat treated under high pressure. The coffee extract is then filtered to remove sediment and resins. Further processing depends on the final result of the product:

• Sublimated. Coffee in large granules with clear edges. Obtained by vacuum drying frozen coffee concentrate. The process occurs at high temperatures and is then crushed into small crystals.

• Powder (emulsified). After heat treatment, the coffee concentrate is cooled, filtered, and then dried with hot air in special thermostats.
• Granulated. This type of drink is made from a powdered drink. To obtain clear granules from the dry powder, it is subjected to additional steam treatment.

Harm

Harm of instant coffee

To understand whether instant coffee is harmful to humans, you need to consider its composition. Many will be surprised that only 20% of the drink consists of natural coffee components. The remaining 80% is “solid” chemistry: flavors, additives, coloring agents and stabilizers.

Scientists have discovered that instant coffee contains benzopyrene resins, a large amount of caffeine and harmful components. A person who drinks this drink regularly feels a craving for coffee, which over time becomes addictive.

Many nutritionists classify coffee as a drug. If you abruptly give up invigorating coffee, a person experiences physical “withdrawal,” which manifests itself as irritability, drowsiness, migraines, and nausea.

Harm from instant coffee is possible for people who have been diagnosed with:

• Diseases of the cardiovascular system
• Hypertension
• Digestive diseases
• Glaucoma
• Insomnia
• Pathologies of the genitourinary system
• Arthritis, osteoporosis, atherosclerosis

Coffee is absolutely contraindicated for children and nursing women. During pregnancy, it is better to replace instant coffee with natural coffee and reduce its consumption to a minimum.

Instant coffee is practically a “chemical bomb”, and consuming a large amount of it per day means exposing the body to constant stress and the harmful effects of synthetic substances and harmful impurities.

Instant coffee during pregnancy and breastfeeding

During lactation, a woman should avoid taking instant coffee in favor of herbal teas and dried fruit compotes. A chemical invigorating drink is not the best option for a nursing mother.

• Overstimulates the nervous system (the child becomes irritable and sleeps poorly)
• Causes allergic reactions (problems with stool, redness and peeling of the skin)
• Removes useful elements from the body, washes away calcium

How is instant coffee beneficial for pregnant women? This drink cannot bring obvious benefits to the expectant mother, and the harm of non-natural coffee is significant. If you want to bear a healthy baby and always feel healthy and energetic, you should give up instant coffee. This drink is harmful even to a healthy person, but in this situation a woman needs to think “for two”, consuming only natural products without harmful chemical components.

Benefit

What are the benefits of instant coffee?

To reduce the harmful effects of instant coffee on the body, it is useful to drink no more than 2 cups of it per day. Coffee stimulates the nervous system, gives vigor and improves mood. The caffeine contained in this drink increases blood pressure and activates brain activity.

Instant coffee affects the genitourinary system, removes fluid from the body, eliminating swelling. However, you should be careful with the amount of coffee consumed - along with excess liquid, it “washes” calcium and other useful microelements from the body.

What are the benefits of instant coffee for humans? Its moderate consumption improves metabolism, increases blood pressure, and slightly stimulates intestinal motility. This concludes the beneficial properties of the drink.

How to check the quality of instant coffee

To reduce the harm of instant coffee, you need to know how to choose this drink correctly. Its quality depends on the type of coffee beans and the amount of chemical ingredients used in production.

Instead of coffee beans, unscrupulous manufacturers add chicory, cereal extracts, acorn powder, palm or coconut oil to instant coffee. Such a drink no longer claims to be called coffee, but should be called a coffee drink.

There is a good way to test instant coffee for quality. You need to add a few drops of ordinary medical iodine to the prepared drink. If it takes on a blue tint, you can rest assured that this is a drink that consists of 80% chemicals. Chemical additives negatively affect the body, and in some cases can even cause intoxication.

Many people simply cannot imagine their morning without a cup of coffee. This noble drink helps you wake up, shake off drowsiness, and have a positive outlook on the next working day. In many countries, coffee is a traditional drink, without which not a single reception of dear guests is complete.

Coffee can be divided into three types:

• Grain;
• Ground;
• Soluble.

The bean type of coffee is fresh coffee beans that are roasted or only slightly dried. For coffee beans, the best raw materials are selected - grains without kinks or other damage. The ground product is natural ground coffee beans that have been roasted. Most often, ground coffee is made from Arabica.

Soluble product can be divided into three types:

• Powdery;
• Granulated;
• Sublimated.

How is this type of coffee produced?

The main product from which the instant drink is produced is coffee beans. As a rule, for granulated and freeze-dried drinks, cheaper raw materials are used - grains Robusta. For the sublimated type - Arabica. We talked about other types of coffee with their characteristics in the material.

Coffee beans are collected on plantations, dried, roasted, crushed and treated with hot water or hot steam under pressure. Further, the technological process for producing different types of instant coffee has many differences.

To obtain powdered coffee, the raw material is treated with inert gas and high temperature, turning it into a dry powder. When producing a freeze-dried type of drink, the raw materials are frozen and then dried in a vacuum. This allows you to preserve the taste and aroma of natural grains as much as possible. Read more about freeze-dried instant coffee. The granulated type of coffee is obtained through the process of repeated processing of raw materials with hot steam under high pressure.

Read more about how instant coffee is made in the publication.

The difference between instant coffee and natural coffee

First of all, it is worth noting that for the production of instant drinks, broken and substandard grains are most often used, which cannot be sold in their whole form. But, as a rule, this does not affect the taste and quality of the drink.

Natural coffee needs to be brewed, instant coffee just needs to be poured with boiling water, which is very convenient when you are short on time. In the production of two types of coffee, the same product is used - coffee beans, but still, the taste and aroma of the drinks are significantly different.

Read more about how much coffee is contained in instant coffee.

The benefits of instant coffee

If traditional technology was followed in the production of the drink, and no preservatives, flavor enhancers or flavoring agents were used, then instant coffee is just as healthy as natural coffee. He invigorates, improves brain activity in the field of logical thinking, enhances physical endurance.

Regular consumption of coffee in small quantities helps prevent many serious diseases: liver and pancreas cancer, rectal cancer.

Caffeine, which is contained in coffee beans, provides prevention against diseases that can depress the central nervous system: Alzheimer's, atherosclerosis, stroke. Drinking a cup of coffee daily has a beneficial effect on the body's cardiovascular system: it improves blood supply to internal organs, strengthens the heart muscle by retaining potassium in the body, and reduces the risk of developing heart failure.

Coffee is a natural antidepressant that increases resistance to stress and depression. A cup of coffee has been proven to increase serotonin levels in the body.

Harm of instant coffee

• Flavoring additives and aromas.

Counterfeit types of instant drinks are made cheaper due to ballast substances or cheap raw materials that cannot be called healthy. Some manufacturers of instant coffee improve the taste of their product through the use of chemicals, which makes the taste and aroma of the drink closer to natural.

• Caffeine.

This substance cannot be called useful or dangerous. It all depends on the amount of caffeine entering the body. In small doses, this substance is useful: invigorates, tones, improves the functioning of many body systems. In large doses, caffeine provokes unhealthy stimulation of the nervous and cardiovascular systems, insomnia, apathy, and headaches. Read about that in this material.

For what diseases is it contraindicated?

• Peptic ulcer disease.

• Liver diseases.

In large quantities, an instant drink can have a toxic effect on the cells of this organ and provoke the development of liver failure.

• Kidneys.

You should not drink coffee if you have urolithiasis. The caffeine contained in the drink increases the concentration of calcium in the urine, which leads to the formation of crystals and exacerbation of urolithiasis.

• Diuretic property of the drink.

Coffee has a pronounced diuretic effect. In large quantities, this drink causes dehydration and washes calcium from the body, which negatively affects tooth enamel and bone tissue.

• Heart and blood vessels.

Coffee is beneficial for these organs in small doses. If the drink is abused, tachycardia, increased heart rate, and increased blood pressure are observed. Instant coffee provokes an increase in the amount of cholesterol in the blood, which negatively affects vascular permeability. Constant consumption of strong coffee can cause the development of heart failure.

• Mental health.

In large quantities, coffee depresses the nervous system, which can lead to irritability, aggressiveness, insomnia, and nervousness. Caffeine and chlorogenic acid negatively affect nerve cells, depleting them.

• Appearance.

Coffee has a bad effect on the appearance and condition of the skin and causes premature aging due to its negative effect on collagen production. This product also causes dilation of capillaries and blood vessels, which can cause the appearance of a characteristic “mesh” on the surface of the skin. The drink contributes to the appearance of dark plaque on tooth enamel.

To drink or not to drink an instant drink is a personal matter for each person. Some people like the ease of preparing the drink, some like the taste and aroma. But, nevertheless, high-quality natural coffee will never compare in aroma and taste with the most expensive types of instant drink.

Video on how instant coffee is produced:

Coffee is the most popular drink, but it takes a lot of time to prepare, especially in the morning when you need to rush to work. In order to reduce time, use instant coffee. You just need to pour a spoonful of powder or granules into a mug, pour boiling water over it and you can enjoy the wonderful aroma. But instant coffee does more harm than good.

Harm of instant coffee

Experts say that instant coffee does more harm than good. It has a negative effect on many systems and organs.

Appearance

First of all, it is a diuretic and removes calcium and other trace elements from the body. With constant consumption of the drink, dehydration occurs.

Over time, a person may observe a deterioration in the condition of hair and skin. Nails become thinner and brittle.

Teeth

Dentists also talk about the dangers of instant coffee. The drink is prohibited for consumption by people who have metal-ceramic implants, as their surface quickly darkens.

Instant coffee can stain even the enamel of natural teeth an unpleasant yellow color. Coffee plaque can only be removed through a whitening procedure, which damages the surface of the teeth.

Digestive system

Instant drinks, including coffee, are harmful to the gastrointestinal tract. The dry drink contains substances that can increase the acidity level.

With regular consumption of coffee, diseases such as ulcers, gastritis, pancreas and liver diseases begin to develop. Natural coffee contains several times less of such substances.

Thus, the drink should not be consumed on an empty stomach, as this increases the negative effect on the gastrointestinal mucosa.

Nervous system

It is believed that coffee helps you wake up and invigorate in the morning. This effect is achieved by stimulating brain activity.

But with frequent consumption of the drink, sleep disturbances are observed, when a person cannot fall asleep for a long time, irritability, and nervousness. For men, regular consumption of coffee causes a decrease in potency.

The cardiovascular system

The human body is an interconnected system. After drinking even one cup, not only the nervous system is activated. There is an increase in the activity of the heart muscle.

During pregnancy

Instant and natural coffee is contraindicated during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The drink has a negative effect on the process of formation and development of the fetus.

Children whose mothers drank coffee during pregnancy suffer from cardiovascular diseases, disorders of the nervous system, and physical and mental retardation.

Instant coffee is dangerous not only for its negative effects on the body. It causes addiction in humans. Many people can no longer start their day with a cup of tea. The drink quickly gained popularity. It is consumed in the morning, afternoon and before bed in large quantities.

Who shouldn't drink coffee?

Experts say that instant coffee is harmful to the body of a healthy person, as it can cause irreparable damage to health. Several risk groups were also identified:

1. Pregnant women. Drinking coffee increases the likelihood of miscarriage and premature birth several times. After birth, children experience psycho-emotional instability and retardation in physical and mental development.
2. Drivers. Instant coffee contains a small amount of caffeine. After a person has drunk a couple of cups of a tasty drink, he begins to feel sleepy after 20-30 minutes. That is why drivers who are about to set off on a flight in the near future are not recommended to drink instant coffee.
3. Aged people. When drinking the drink, insomnia, increased blood pressure, shortness of breath, aggressiveness, and overexcitement are observed. Older people, as a rule, also have diseases of the cardiovascular system. Coffee can make the situation worse.

For many men and women, their favorite morning drink is freeze-dried or regular instant coffee, whose benefits and harms to the body will be discussed in this article. The composition and properties of these drinks differ from grain drinks. They contain no more than 20% of beans, and the rest of the volume is occupied by dyes and flavors, which allow the coffee to become similar to grain, therefore the benefits of instant coffee are lower than natural ones.

Vitamins and minerals included

There are two types of instant coffee, differing in the preparation method - regular and freeze-dried. The first is prepared from crushed coffee beans, dried with steam. Freeze-dried (frozen) powder differs from ordinary powder in the preparation method. It is dried by freezing. This powder has lower acidity and retains more substances from the grains. However, since the process of preparing it is more expensive, such coffee costs more. A high-quality frozen product contains some useful substances for the human body that are present in grain:

• Vitamin PP (26.49 mg) has a positive effect on the nervous system and stimulates brain function, as it dilates blood vessels in the brain and promotes better oxygen saturation. Also in the body of men and women, it participates in the processes of breakdown of fats and carbohydrates, promoting their conversion into energy, which is then spent on physical activity, breathing, and maintaining body temperature;
• Vitamin B2 (1 mg) is also involved in the processes of converting fats, carbohydrates and proteins into the energy necessary to maintain the vital functions of the body. Indicated for pregnant women, as it stimulates tissue growth and cell division in the fetus.

Also, freeze-dried coffee contains minerals found in natural coffee:

1. Phosphorus (250 mg) is part of bone tissue, useful for men and women in that it helps increase bone density and reduce their porosity;
2. Calcium (100) is the main substance necessary for the formation of bone tissue and ensures its integrity, reduces the fragility of bones, teeth and nails;
3. Iron (6.1), when it enters the human body, combines with oxygen molecules to form hemoglobin, which is good for people suffering from anemia (low amount of iron in the body, low hemoglobin);
4. Sodium (3) is an ion in the intercellular fluid, which, due to its positive charge, creates in it the pressure necessary for transporting nutrients to the cells.

The benefits and harms of instant coffee for humans are no less than natural ones. For example, the amount of caffeine in these drinks is approximately the same - in natural 80 mg per cup, in freeze-dried - 60 mg. However, it is impossible to say which one is more useful based on these data. Despite the slightly lower caffeine content, instant coffee, whose benefits and harms are described below, has a negative effect on some organ systems: the nervous system due to the caffeine content, the gastrointestinal tract due to its high acidity (which can be reduced by adding milk.

Use with milk

The freeze-dried product contains acids (0.418 g of fatty acids and 5.825 g of amino acids per 100 g of powder). This is due to its ability to increase the acidity of gastric juice. As a result, heartburn may occur. Also, the acids in freeze-dried coffee have an aggressive effect on tooth enamel, dissolving it and causing it to become thinner, which is harmful because it leads to increased tooth sensitivity.

Milk has an alkaline environment, which allows you to neutralize acids and significantly reduce their aggressiveness. By adding some milk (soy or regular), you can reduce the acidity of coffee, which will prevent heartburn and reduce damage to tooth enamel.

When consumed with milk, the teeth will also be less stained. Manufacturers need to add dyes to the sublimated product so that the finished drink has the same color as the natural one. Whatever brand you choose (even a high-quality and expensive one), it will still contain dyes. These dyes stain the enamel of teeth, which can be a serious problem for men and women who drink strong coffee daily.

Adding milk makes the drink lighter and partially neutralizes the dye. Thus, if you drink the product with milk, the enamel will stain less. However, the method cannot completely remove this effect, so it is recommended to brush your teeth after use.

Harm

In order to find out whether instant coffee is harmful, with or without milk, you need to familiarize yourself with the contraindications and the harm it can cause to the body. The caffeine content explains the ability of the product (regardless of whether it is ground or freeze-dried) to increase blood pressure (caffeine consumption leads to vasoconstriction). For this reason, it is contraindicated in hypertensive patients (people suffering from high blood pressure). It should not be used by men over 35 years of age, because they are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.

Important! However, due to its ability to increase blood pressure, it is relatively useful for hypotensive patients (people suffering from low blood pressure).

The second thing that is harmful about instant coffee is its acid content. The property causes the acidity in the oral cavity, the acidity of saliva and gastric juice to increase. This leads to destruction of tooth enamel. The harm is reduced if you rinse your teeth with water after drinking the drink.

Increased acidity of gastric juice leads to heartburn. Acids negatively affect the gastric mucosa, irritating it. For this reason, the main contraindications that the product has are stomach ulcers, inflammatory processes in the mucous membrane and gastritis with high acidity. Consumption of the product by men and women with such diseases will provoke an attack and complicate the course of the disease.

In conclusion, we will answer the question of whether instant coffee is harmful for pregnant and lactating women, because the caffeine content in it is lower than in grain coffee. Regardless of what kind of coffee you drink during pregnancy, the substance will have a negative effect on the unformed nervous system of the fetus. The soluble analogue is no less harmful to the body of the unborn child than the natural one. For the same reason, it should not be consumed by nursing mothers, because caffeine accumulates in milk.

• increased sweating;
• weakened immunity, frequent colds;
• weakness, fatigue;
• nervous state, depression;
• headaches and migraines;
• alternating diarrhea and constipation;
• I want sweet and sour;
• bad breath;
• frequent feeling of hunger;
• problems with losing weight;
• decreased appetite;
• night grinding of teeth, drooling;
• pain in the abdomen, joints, muscles;
• cough does not go away;
• acne on the skin.

If you have any of the symptoms or are in doubt about the causes of your ailments, you need to cleanse your body as quickly as possible. How to do it .

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.