Many of us cannot imagine a morning without a cup of coffee. The opinions about the benefits of coffee are very different. Despite some positive qualities of caffeine, some people are recommended to drink coffee without caffeine. Usually the one who are recommended to choose coffee without caffeine are elderly people, children, pregnant and breast feeding women, people who suffer from high blood pressure, the one who have kidney problems, anxiety, insomnia or other disorders of nervous system. Caffeine can lead to addiction, so for this reason, decaf becomes more and more popular. But is it indeed a healthy choice?
Coffee without caffeine is actually made using the same coffee beans. At first they are being exposed to water or steam. Then caffeine is being extracted using organic solvent (methylene chloride, ethyl acetate), liquid carbon dioxide or activated carbon. The last stage is drying coffee beans.
Organic solvent dissolved caffeine and most of it is removed. However, part of the solvent residues are not completely removed from the coffee beans. Currently there are safer solvents, however, their effects are not fully investigated. Besides, decaf coffee still has a little part of caffeine (up to 15%).
So, decaf is not necessarily healthier than the usual natural coffee. Also it is not very toxic as the quality is controlled by various institutions. However, decaffeinated coffee should not be used to excess, assuming that it is completely safe. In particular, it should not be used by pregnant and breastfeeding women.