We’ve all wondered, as we’re emptying out our coffee filter and tossing perfectly-good-looking spent grounds in the trash:
“I wonder what it would taste like if I just took a bite out of this right now while no one is looking?”
Oh, come on. You’re telling me you’ve never had that thought before? Never?
Well, neither have I, but some people do.
Maybe you’ve just wondered whether you can eat coffee grounds or not.
The answer to that is a resounding “Yes.”
But why would you want to eat coffee grounds?
Well, first of all, they smell like coffee. Because… y’know, they are.
If you’ve ever chewed on coffee beans for a snack, you’ll have some idea of what coffee grounds taste like.
Is eating grounds so different from eating whole coffee beans?
Not really.
Do coffee grounds taste good?
Well, your mileage may vary.
There are a ton of great tasting recipes out there that use coffee grounds as an ingredient for flavor, And they also make a great addition to a marinade.
Naturally, whether your grounds will taste good, or just be really bitter, will depend on the coffee, as well as whether they’re fresh out of the bag, or spent grounds that have been used for brewing.
The answer to “Is eating coffee grounds healthy?” is a resounding “Could be… depending.”
Yep, eating plain, unfiltered coffee grounds is both potentially good and potentially not that good for your health.
Let’s start with the bad news first—the potential negative.
Eating unfiltered coffee grounds or whole beans can potentially raise your cholesterol.
If you’re drinking coffee that has been brewed through a paper filter, you don’t have to worry about this—the filtration step in the brewing process removes the compounds that can cause cholesterol levels to increase.
This is a good place to note that if you’re regularly getting your caffeine fix from Turkish coffee, or using a French Press without paper filters/micro filters that are “micro enough” to filter out cholesterol-raising compounds, you should keep an eye on your cholesterol levels as well.
Turkish coffee much more-so than paper filterless French Press, according to this 1995 study on the matter.
If you’re considering eating coffee grounds, and if you’re concerned about your cholesterol levels—you might be better off sticking with brewed, filtered coffee.
Of course, if you’re concerned about cholesterol, there are a lot of other things you should be avoiding besides eating grounds. This is just one of those that can sneak up on people watching their cholesterol since it’s less well-known.
But what about the good news—those positives I mentioned earlier?
Well, according to research published in the ACS Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, antioxidants aren’t just in the brewed coffee we drink. They’re also found in the grounds.
In fairly high concentrations, in some cases.
These researchers tested extracts from used coffee grounds that had become “spent” using three different methods. They found high levels of phenols in the extracts from the grounds—even at higher levels than in brewed coffee in some cases. From this, they concluded that coffee grounds had some possible potential as an additive to enhance health effects in other foods.
As a reminder, polyphenols are bioactive organic compounds that contain antioxidants and may help with protecting our tissues against oxidative stress, as well as preventing the development of some diseases like cancer and coronary heart disease.
Naturally, coffee grounds that have been steeped in water (i.e. used grounds) also have a lower caffeine content. The caffeine to phenol ratio in spent grounds is different than the ratio in brewed coffee. I don’t know why someone would want this, but there you have it. Information.
So coffee grounds are totally edible, whether you’re inclined to eat them for the polyphenols or include them in a recipe.
Whatever the reason, just be aware of potential risks for increasing your blood cholesterol if you’re chomping down unfiltered coffee grounds regularly.
If you’re worried about cholesterol, stick to drinking brewed, filtered coffee.
It still contains lots of polyphenols/antioxidants, and probably tastes a whole hell of a lot better anyway.
