A new study found that a cup of coffee with milk may create a combination of proteins and antioxidants that doubles the anti-inflammatory properties in immune cells. 

That doesn't mean you should listen to 'food is medicine' advocates and start putting dairy in everything, this was a cell study, which is even lower than studies in mice on the human relevance scale.

Reduction and oxidation - termed the redox cycle in biology - are an essential part of our daily functioning. Antioxidant supplements seek to slow mitochondria oxidation down and fortunately do nothing or misuse could have had consequences for millions by now while anti-inflammatories have survived double-blind clinical trials in ways that fava beans never will. When bacteria, viruses and other foreign substances enter the body, our immune systems react by deploying white blood cells and chemical substances to protect us. This inflammation reaction also occurs whenever we overload tendons and muscles and is characteristic of diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.



Antioxidants known as polyphenols are found in humans, plants, fruits and vegetables and are used by the food industry to slow the oxidation and deterioration of food quality and thereby avoid off flavors and rancidity. Polyphenols are considered healthy for humans as they help reduce oxidative stress in the body that gives rise to inflammation but, as always, too much is bad. Little is known about what happens when polyphenols react with other molecules, such as proteins mixed into foods that we then consume and have every single day for hundreds of thousands of years but get left out of miracle food claims by nutrition bloggers.

The new exploratory work looked at how polyphenols behave when combined with amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. The researchers applied artificial inflammation to immune cells. Some of the cells received various doses of polyphenols that had reacted with an amino acid, while others only received polyphenols in the same doses. A control group received nothing.

The researchers observed that immune cells treated with the combination of polyphenols and amino acids were twice as effective at fighting inflammation as the cells to which only polyphenols were added. Basically, when a polyphenol reacted with an amino acid, its inhibitory effect on inflammation in immune cells is enhanced. That's no cause to go WebMD and declare you should drink more milk but it is interesting.