Over the past year or so, the emerging benefits of drinking coffee -- protecting your DNA and lessening your type 2 diabetes risks, for example -- appear to be far outweighing the risks in the world of science.

This positive turn may be the result of researchers better understanding what happens chemically when coffee beans are roasted that brings out a different set of antioxidant benefits, a product of the Maillard reaction, the interaction between amino acids and sugars when foods are exposed to high heat.

Raw green coffee beans possess chlorogenic acids, natural antioxidants with antibacterial and antiviral qualities that are almost completely lost during the roasting process. Fortunately, a new set of antioxidants take their place, thanks to the Malliard reaction, that are more stable and help to remove free radicals, metabolic end-products linked to the aging process.

The tricky part is all in the roasting. Too much heat (think dark roast coffee blends), and those new antioxidants formed by the Maillard reaction break down. That's why you may want to skip the dark roast coffee and go straight for the medium blend and max out on the antioxidants.

Food Research International January 12, 2011

The Vancouver Sun February 3, 2011

ScienceDaily February 3, 2011