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Research has found that not only is coffee not bad for your heart, it might actually be beneficial.

"If women are consuming a moderate amount of coffee, up to five 8-ounce cups a day, they do not have to be concerned that it will increase their risk of heart disease or stroke," says Rob van Dam, the review's first author and an adjunct professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "There may even be some benefits, particularly for reducing risk of type 2 diabetes, which is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke."

Coffee doesn't look or taste anything like a salad, but it contains some of the same benefits.

It's chock-full of biologically active phytochemicals (components of plants that affect their taste, smell, and color). These phytochemicals include chlorogenic acid, lignans, trigonelline, and melanoidins. While these names may not mean a lot to you, researchers say they bring a bevy of benefits, including helping to feed healthy organisms in your gut and improving the way your body processes sugar and fat.

Coffee is also thought to help to reduce oxidative stress by neutralizing harmful substances called free radicals, which can damage your body's cells. It also contains some important nutrients, including magnesium, potassium, and vitamin B₃ (niacin).

Bad news if you love your French press, or if you're a fan of Turkish or Scandinavian boiled coffee: Unfiltered brews contain a compound called cafestol that can raise your "bad" LDL cholesterol levels, says van Dam. Cafestol is also found in smaller but still noteworthy amounts in espresso, as well as in coffee made in a moka pot.

In contrast, drip-filtered coffee, instant coffee, and percolator coffee have negligible amounts of the compound. Single serve coffee pods, such as K-cups have not been tested separately, but they contain filters and most likely have levels similar to other drip-filtered coffee. "The evidence for a cholesterol-raising effect of unfiltered coffee is strong and consistent from randomized clinical trials of these types of coffee," says van Dam. Researchers reported that LDL cholesterol levels of people who drank a lot of unfiltered coffee (3 to 6 cups a day) were about 18 milligrams per deciliter higher than those of people who drank filtered coffee. This in turn raised the risk of major cardiovascular events, such as heart attack or stroke.

"For people consuming unfiltered coffee on a daily basis, I would recommend switching to other types of coffee. If you are consuming multiple cups a day of espresso-based coffees — like Americano or cappuccino — I would recommend reducing consumption or partly switching over to drip-filtered or instant coffee," says van Dam. People who already have high cholesterol or a higher-than-average risk of heart disease should be particularly careful, he says.

While coffee can be a good-for-you option, that changes if you add the wrong things. There's a big difference between a cup of coffee served black and a fancy concoction that contains a liberal pour of sugary syrup or heavy cream, or copious amounts of sugar.

"This can turn it into a high-calorie beverage that may contribute to excess weight gain and a higher risk of diabetes, unhealthy cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and high blood pressure," says van Dam.

Research shows that coffee doesn't appear to raise your risk of developing or dying from cancer, and some studies suggest that coffee drinkers even have a slightly lower risk of certain types of cancer, such as cancer of the liver or the endometrium (the lining of the uterus).

Arizona’s former state health director says Governor Doug Ducey is “scientifically wrong” in lumping gyms and fitness centers with bars as places that cannot safely be operated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is no reason to keep these facilities closed any longer if they comply with the standards already proposed by current Health Director Cara Christ, Will Humble said in a document obtained by Capitol Media Services.

In fact, he said, any gym or fitness center that meets those standards actually would pose less of a risk to public health than grocery and other retail stores that now are allowed to operate.

The formal declaration comes as part of a lawsuit by Mountainside Fitness which on Monday hopes to convince Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Thomason that he should overrule the governor’s order that declares gyms and fitness centers cannot currently open, no matter what steps they take.

Hanging in the balance is not just the 18 locations of the locally owned operation.

It could provide a basis to force the governor to give the go-ahead for other gyms and fitness centers around the state to reopen if they also agree to meet the standards — something that Ducey and Christ have so far prevented them from even trying.

Gyms and fitness centers had originally been closed in March, along with various other businesses, in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Two months later Ducey agreed to ease up on those restrictions if gyms met guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that requires “strict physical distancing and sanitation protocols.” Based on that, Mountainside and many other facilities reopened.

At the end of June, however, with a spike in infections, the governor reversed course, closing not just gyms but also bars, movie theaters and water parks.

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But Ducey promised at the time that the health department would develop protocols before July 27 to allow the gyms and fitness centers to reopen.

There is now a draft. But Ducey has since extended the closure order for those facilities for another two weeks, if not longer.

Humble, asked to review those guidelines by Mountainside, said there’s no reason for that.

“Because the proposed guidelines are very specific and more stringent than the standards applied to normal commercial businesses, my opinion is that any fitness center adhering to the proposed guidelines presents an equal or even lower risk of transmission of COVID-19 than, per prior examples, a normal retail establishment or grocery store,” he said. Humble said he was not paid for his opinion.

Attorney Joel Sannes hopes to use that declaration at Monday’s hearing to convince Thomason that there is no legitimate health-related reason to keep his client from serving its customers.

Humble, now executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association, sought to underline his point that the gyms and fitness centers should never have been lumped into the governor’s June decision to shutter bars to stop the spread of the virus, saying there are clear distinctions.

“Despite my training and three decades of experience in public health, I am unable to propose a mitigation plan for a nightclub or bar that I could state with any degree of confidence would successfully mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission,” he said. The difference, he said, is the nature of each kind of business.

“It appears impossible to enforce social distancing at a bar or nightclub, where the very purpose, goal, and intention of the customers is to avoid social distancing from other customers,” Humble said.

“The interactions between customers are predictably in close proximity,” he continued. “Chairs are frequently not fixed to the floor or else are not used, noise levels drive conversation participants closer together, and alcohol impairs judgment and invites risk-taking.”

By contrast, Humble said, the goal at a fitness center is exercise and healthy behavior.

“Exercise equipment can be easily spaced out for proper social distancing,” he said. “Fitness center members are not ingesting alcohol and are not inebriated, and therefore can read printed wall signs discussing member hygiene requirements and can use good judgment to comply — or be asked to leave.”

And Humble said people, in general, go to gyms to exercise, not to socialize.

“The governor is scientifically wrong to equate the risk posed by those two groups of businesses,” Humble said, calling any such attempt to compare a bar with a fitness center operating under the proposed guidelines “a false equivalency.”

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