5 Trendy Ways to Get Your Coffee Fix (And What to Know About Each)

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Americans are certifiably obsessed with coffee. Nearly 60% of Americans age 18 and up report they drink coffee on any given day, according to the National Coffee Association’s 2015 trends report, with this year’s Zagat coffee survey finding that the number of people with a daily habit is more like 80%.

As you’ve probably heard, the potential health benefits of coffee are many: it’s been linked with helping weight loss, and possibly even slashing your risk for diseases like diabetes and cancer. It may also boost your calorie-burn during a workout, making it the perfect pre-gym drink. While this definitely doesn’t mean you should drink coffee non-stop, you can feel great about your daily fix.

These days it’s not just your regular mug of hot and (deliciously) bitter goodness: Over a third of Americans are now choosing gourmet coffee beverages. And there are a number of trendy new ways to prepare the beverage.

Here are five buzzing ways to enjoy java, along with what you should know about each.

Pour over

The first time I saw this method I thought, hmmm, so this is just a low-tech way of making a brew? (e.g. no machine plugged into an outlet). But nope, there’s more to it than that. In a nutshell pour over involves placing freshly ground beans into a rinsed filter, within a filter holder or cone, which is placed over a vessel. Connoisseurs say that wetting the grounds, then continuously pouring water (heated to a precise temperature, usually 200 degrees) from a kettle methodically and slowly (we’re talking four minutes or so) over the grounds, rather than “flooding” them, extracts more flavor. When using this meticulous method some baristas also utilize scales and timers. Pour over has been referred to as “theater” because it’s quite entertaining to watch. I have to admit, I really enjoy the “show” myself — when I’m not in a hurry for my cup, that is.

RELATED: 12 Surprising Sources of Caffeine

Cold brew

With cold brewing, time replaces heat: instead of five or 10 minutes of brewing with hot water, you steep coffee grounds in cold or room temp water for 12 hours or more before filtering them out. Because the coffee never comes into contact with hot water, certain oils and fatty acids, which can only be extracted by heat, are left behind in the grounds. Cold brewing fans say this results in coffee that’s smoother and less bitter.

Cold brew also tends to have less caffeine. For example, 16 ounces of Starbucks unsweetened cold brew contains around 165 mg of caffeine, compared to 330 mg in the same sized cup of dark roast. So if you’re looking for less intensity—both in buzz and in bitterness—this may be your brew. Just don’t confuse cold brew with regular iced coffee, which is typically made from hot coffee that’s been chilled or poured over ice.

RELATED: 10 Coffee Drinks Worse Than a Candy Bar

Single-origin

Coffee makers often blend beans to create more complexity. For example, they might mix a bean with great flavor with another that has a fantastic aroma, or combine beans with varying flavor profiles. “Single-origin” means coffee made from beans grown in one geographical region, or even a specific farm, instead.

The benefit for the coffee-connoisseur? You get to experience the unique qualities imparted from just one source of beans, which are affected by things like climate, soil, elevation, biodiversity, and growing techniques. Beans from one farm in Ethiopia will have very different characteristics from those grown in Brazil, or Guatemala, and serious coffee lovers appreciate the nuances.

Two other key reasons single-origin coffee has become more popular involve sustainability and traceability. As coffee buyers develop relationships with specific coffee growers, farmers are often able to receive higher prices for their crops, use more environmentally-friendly farming techniques, and keep their land healthier, all of which help to improve the well-being of communities, and foster sustainability. Food enthusiasts are also much more interested in knowing exactly where their food comes from now, and choosing single origin can allow coffee drinkers to learn about the specific farm or farmers that produced their coffee, even if they are many miles away.

RELATED: Big Perks: Coffee’s Health Benefits

Edible coffee

Several years ago munching on a few dark chocolate covered espresso beans inspired me to whip some coffee grounds into a cherry almond smoothie (which was Ah-mazing), and I’ve been experimenting with baking and cooking with coffee ever since. It’s become a pretty hot culinary trend, and there are countless way to get creative in the kitchen. Try brewed coffee as the liquid in dishes ranging from oatmeal to a marinade. You can also use coffee grounds as a rub for meat, add it to pudding, yogurt, brownies or cookies, or in a myriad of savory dishes, like chili, and black bean soup.

RELATED: 4 Recipes for Coffee Lovers

Bulletproof

Bulletproof Coffee is a concoction created by a tech entrepreneur named Dave Asprey. The controversial formula involves a combination of proprietary coffee, grass fed butter, and a Bulletproof branded “Brain Octane Oil” made with coconut and/or palm kernel, which are rich in a type of fat shown in some research to boost satiety and your ability to burn calories. While grass-fed butter is certainly better for you than its conventional counterpart, proponents of this coffee drink (and the diet) recommend sipping it as a breakfast substitute.

Personally I do not advise trading a healthy breakfast like an organic veggie and avocado omelet, or oats with fruit and nuts, which provide a much broader spectrum of nutrients, for coffee alone, with about 400 calories from butter and oil. While drinking the coffee by itself is supposed to be connected to its weight loss benefits (coming from the zero carb and high fat content), I have seen people shed 25, 50, even 100 pounds eating healthy, balanced meals that include reasonable portions of “good” carbs. So in short, my biggest concern about the coffee isn’t so much its ingredients, but what you’re giving up for them.

Now that you’ve got the skinny on these trends, it’s up to you what you brew next.

RELATED: Is It Possible Drink Too Much Caffeine?

What are your thoughts on this topic? Chat with us on Twitter by mentioning @goodhealth and @CynthiaSass.

Cynthia Sass is a nutritionist and registered dietitian with master’s degrees in both nutrition science and public health. Frequently seen on national TV, she’s Health’s contributing nutrition editor, and privately counsels clients in New York, Los Angeles, and long distance. Cynthia is currently the sports nutrition consultant to the New York Rangers NHL team and the New York Yankees MLB team, and is board certified as a specialist in sports dietetics. Cynthia is a three time New York Times best selling author, and her brand new book is Slim Down Now: Shed Pounds and Inches with Real Food, Real Fast. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

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Genetic Differences Seen in Younger Colon Cancer Patients

TUESDAY, June 2, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Colon cancer is genetically different in older and younger patients, and young adults may require different treatments, a new study suggests.

While the overall rate of colon cancer in the United States is falling, the rate is rising among younger adults. And previous research has shown that colon cancer is more aggressive in patients younger than 50 than in older people, the researchers noted.

In this study, researchers compared the genetics of five colon cancer tumors from younger patients (half of them younger than 31) and six tumors from older patients (half older than 73).

“We saw differences in two important gene signaling pathways, PPAR and IGF1R, which are involved in regulating cell development, metabolism, and growth,” Dr. Christopher Lieu, an investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, said in a university news release.

Changes in these signaling pathways have been linked to several types of cancer, he and his colleagues noted.

The researchers also found that tumors from younger patients were enriched for pathways responsible for metabolizing drugs.

“Chemotherapies challenge cancer cells and younger people may metabolize these chemotherapies differently than older patients. This may explain why our traditional chemotherapy treatments may be less effective for younger patients with metastatic colorectal cancer,” study lead author Todd Pitts, a research instructor in developmental therapeutics program at the Cancer Center, said in the news release.

The study was scheduled for release this week at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, in Chicago. Findings presented at meetings are usually considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

The researchers plan a larger study to confirm their findings.

“If I were to shoot for the stars, I would say that our end goal is to be able to offer better treatments for this population of young colorectal cancer patients that seems to be at higher risk from the disease,” Lieu said.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about colon cancer.

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1 in 5 Younger Americans Tested for HIV

TUESDAY, June 2, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Nearly one-fifth of teens and younger adults in the United States have been tested recently for HIV, federal health officials reported Tuesday.

In 2011, more than 1 million Americans 13 and older had HIV, but one in seven did not know their infection status. Routine, voluntary testing is known to reduce transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics analyzed data from 5,600 females and more than 4,800 males, ages 15-44, who took part in the 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth. The researchers found that 19 percent had undergone HIV testing in the past year, an increase from 17 percent in both 2002 and 2006-2010.

HIV testing rates in 2011-2013 were 22 percent for females and 16 percent for males, compared with 20 percent for females in 2002. There was no significant increase among males, the researchers said.

In all time periods included in the study, females were more likely than males to have had an HIV test in the past year.

Females ages 25-34 were most likely to have been tested (29 percent), followed by females ages 15-24 (22 percent) and those ages 35-44 (16 percent). Black females were more likely to have been tested (45 percent) than Hispanics (21 percent) or whites (16 percent).

Among females ages 22-44, those with a high school diploma or less were more likely to have been tested (26 percent) than those with some college (25 percent) or those with a bachelor’s degree or higher (20 percent).

Males ages 25-34 were more likely to have been tested (19 percent) than those ages 35-44 (13 percent) and those ages 15-24 (16 percent). Black males were more likely to have been tested (33 percent) than Hispanics (15 percent) or whites (13 percent).

Education had little effect on rates of HIV testing among men.

Females who had same-sex contact in the past year were more likely to have been tested for HIV (35 percent) than those with any opposite-sex contact (approximately 25 percent). Slightly less than 40 percent of males who had any same-sex contact in the past year had been tested, compared with 20 percent who had any opposite-sex contact.

Twenty-six percent of females who had vaginal intercourse or oral sex with a male were tested, compared with 18 percent of males who had vaginal or oral sex with a female.

Rates of HIV testing were similar for females and males who had anal sex with an opposite-sex partner (25 percent and 23 percent, respectively), or any same-sex contact in the past year (35 percent and 38 percent, respectively).

More information

AIDS.gov has more about HIV testing.

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Cholesterol Drugs May Boost Outcomes After Bypass

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 2, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A new study suggests that the widely used anti-cholesterol drugs known as statins may have another benefit: Cutting the odds for death in the weeks and months after heart bypass surgery.

Use of a statin — especially the drug Zocor — was linked to a 65 percent to 74 percent lower risk of death following coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Bypass is performed for patients suffering from severely clogged or narrowed arteries, and is designed to re-route blood flow around such blockages.

The study was led by Robert Sanders, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His team of U.S. and U.K. researchers noted that the vast majority of heart surgery patients included in the analysis — roughly 85 percent — were already routinely taking a statin before their heart surgery.

“The unknown is why the other 15 percent were not on statins,” Sanders said. Some may have had an intolerance to the medications or adverse effects, while others might simply not have been offered the cholesterol drug by their physicians, he noted.

The new study was based on data involving more than 16,000 British heart surgery patients. All were at least 40 years old at the time they underwent coronary bypass graft surgery, and the researchers tracked outcomes at one month and six months after bypass.

Apart from statins, many of the patients had been taking a broad range of other types of heart medicines prior to the surgery. For example, nearly three-quarters were taking beta-blockers, more than 60 percent were taking the heart drugs called ACE inhibitors, and nearly 45 percent were taking calcium channel blockers.

However, after conducting five statistical analyses, Sander’s team found that only the use of statins was tied with a “significant protective effect” in reducing a patient’s post-operative risk for death. This finding held up even after the researchers factored out each patient’s prior history of other chronic illnesses.

One type of statin — simvastatin (Zocor) — was tied to the most significant drop in post-operative death risk, about a 77 percent decline. Sander’s team said more research is needed before it can say whether other types of statins might have similar effects.

And Sanders added that while “it is reasonable to assume that all these [bypass] patients would benefit from statin therapy,” the question remains whether the remaining 15 percent would benefit from short-term statin therapy around the time of their operation.

Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, agreed with Sanders that the current findings will have to be confirmed by further research.

“It would require a randomized clinical trial to demonstrate that this early, associated benefit with statin therapy represents a cause-and-effect relationship,” he said.

“However, as it is already recommended that patients diagnosed with coronary artery disease — including those undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting — should be treated with statin therapy irrespectively, these findings further reinforce current guideline recommendations,” Fonarow added.

The study was scheduled to be presented Sunday in Berlin at the Euroanaesthesia 2015 meeting. Experts note that findings presented at medical meetings are typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

There’s more on statins at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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Most Teens Seek Health Info Online: Survey

By Tara Haelle
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 2, 2015 (HealthDay News) — More than eight in 10 U.S. teenagers turn to the Internet for health information, and just under a third have changed their health behaviors based on what they found online, according to a new survey.

Teens following online advice sampled healthier foods, tried exercising when depressed and reduced how much soda they drank, the survey found.

But the Internet still ranked fourth, behind parents, school health classes and health care professionals, in terms of where teens get their information, the study authors from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., noted.

One expert said this points to the benefits of online information. “There is so much hype that the Internet is pulling families and relationships apart. Actually, teenagers are going to the Internet to cultivate healthier and safer lifestyles,” said Dr. Jodi Gold, assistant professor of psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City.

The study found 55 percent of teens get a lot of health information from their parents, followed by 32 percent from health classes, 29 percent from doctors and nurses and 25 percent online.

“This study reinforces the importance of being involved in your teenager’s life,” said Gold, who was not part of the research. “While teenagers go to the Internet for health information, they still get most of their health information from their parents.”

The survey included information from nearly 1,200 U.S. teens. They were between the ages of 13 and 18 in late 2014 and early 2015 when the survey was done. The online survey asked teens how they seek out, receive and assess health information. The survey team was led by Ellen Wartella, a professor of psychology and human development and social policy at Northwestern.

The findings were presented at a Northwestern policy conference in Washington, D.C., on June 2.

A quarter of the teens said they got “a lot” of health information online, and just over a third said they got “some.” Overall, 84 percent have sought health information online at least once, and 58 percent of them usually start by looking up a topic on Google. Half of those using search engines said they clicked on the first result, which they regarded as the “best” site for their question.

One expert warns of the downside of consulting the Internet.

“Careful discussion with teens about seeking information online is critical since teens may act on the information they receive and may end up harming rather than helping themselves,” said Dr. Danelle Fisher, vice chair of pediatrics at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif.

“The Internet is a wealth of information, but not all of this information is accurate. Teens and adults should always analyze critically the source of information when trying to look up something online and use reputable sources if possible,” said Fisher, who was also not part of the study.

The survey found that teens are at least somewhat savvy in their searches: Only 14 percent trust “.com” sites compared to the 37 percent who trust “.edu” sites. Just 10 percent get a lot of health information from social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook. More than two-thirds of the teens were concerned about health privacy or data mining, according to the survey.

Teens should be wary if a site is designed to generate income, Gold suggested. “Parents need to teach their children and teenagers how to be critical consumers of online health information,” she said.

School assignments topped the list of reasons teens sought health information online. But 45 percent looked for info to take better care of themselves. Other reasons included checking symptoms for a health problems or getting information for family or friends.

Fitness and exercise led the topics teens looked up online, with 42 percent looking up information on that topic and 36 percent looking up information on diet and nutrition. Other popular topics included stress and anxiety, sexually transmitted diseases, puberty, sleep, depression or other mental health issues.

Another expert believes teens are at a vulnerable time in their lives. “At an age when body image becomes important, it may not be a surprise to find teens looking for health information that may help with fitness and nutrition,” said Dr. Carlo Reyes, a pediatrician and assistant medical director of the emergency department at Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, Calif. “This does create a significant opportunity for preventative care.”

Teens do encounter negative health information, such as drinking games, how to be anorexic or bulimic, how to get tobacco or nicotine products and how to get or make illegal drugs, but most do not see this information often.

“This study should reassure parents that their teenagers are using the Internet to learn how to be healthier, but parents need to have offline conversations about sex, sexuality, body image, sexual health, beauty and Photoshop,” Gold said. “Their teenagers are actually listening.”

More information

For tips on assessing the reliability of online heath information, visit HealthIT.gov.

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How to Know When Your Bad Mood Is Something More Serious

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How do I know if I’m really depressed or just extra cranky?

Depression is more than just feeling down or crabby. It’s caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain that usually affects your mind and body. So while feeling sad is one sign of depression, there are usually also physical clues, such as changes in appetite (typically loss of appetite), insomnia, frequent tearfulness and extreme lethargy. You may also stop enjoying activities you used to love. As long as your bad mood isn’t causing problems at home or work or interfering with your ability to get through your daily routine, it’s probably not depression.

4 RD-Approved Things You Can Order at Taco Bell

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So you’ve heard the news that Taco Bell is phasing artificial flavors and colors out of its food. Good news, right? Don’t celebrate with a Crunchwrap so fast: You could still OD on calories, saturated fat, and sodium if you decide to head south of the border. If the Bell is your only dining option—or you’re really craving those southwestern flavors—go with these better-for-you choices suggested by Molly Kimball, RD.

5 Superfoods to boost your Paleo diet

For a regime that is often interpreted as bacon-centric, devotees of ancestral health movement seems much more concerned to get as much nutrition from their food choices. (Even if it means putting bacon on the back burner.)
So what are the best food choices for someone who wants to improve their diet, Paleo or otherwise?

Nettles

An excellent example of food as medicine, a nettle plant is packed with nutrition and has long been used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), allergies, arthritis and inflammation.

How to get nettles in your day? Steep the tea for herbaceous branch, simmer with bone broth for soup or blend into a raw vegetarian pesto. Concerned that the heating will lose its nutritional quality? This herb is so incredible nutrient dense it will still be effective even after heating.

Note: If you use a nettle to treat hay fever, work into your routine a few months before allergy season so that the benefits will be in full force once running high allergens.

4 Weight-Loss Secrets You Can Learn From Men

Wondering how guys get away with eating all that junk?

If you have tried dieting with your guy, this may sound familiar: You, three weeks after the cabbage-ifying your diet and rearranging your life to work, to discover that you lost just 0.4 pounds. Meanwhile, your man is excited because he dropped eight pounds and a total size of pants, he tells you while preparing his "smoothie diet," made from bananas, fried chicken, and chocolate milk . what gives? the researchers studied this and found that yes, men abandon twice as much weight as women when they start a diet. I'm sure there's a scientific explanation for it for that, but I have my own theories, not one proven by something other than the intuition of man. Think about them before you throw the mixer to the newly slim rear end of your guy.

Cancer Screening : A day to save his skin

HEALTH The goal: to alert and sensitize primarily the most risky public ...

This Thursday, rather than sunbathing on the terrace, you can get free in one of the 220 screening centers of skin cancer. The objective of the 17th day of prevention and screening for skin cancer is to alert and sensitize primarily the most public at risk, that is to say those exposed to UV radiation under their profession (farmers, construction personnel or sailors and all persons engaged in outdoor activities) or during leisure time (sports and outdoor activities)