A certain part of the Western population complains that they digest cappuccino badly or that they find it annoying for their stomachs. The debate on the subject is always open and very lively because it concerns one of the iconic coffee drinks.
According to Luigi Odello, president of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters (Iiac), the cappuccino from a chemical point of view is magic. In fact, it is a polyphasic drink in which myriads of molecules coexist in an unstable and therefore dynamic system.
Everything has really been written about the relationship between cappuccino and health. In reality, the nutritional principles are those provided by the two basic components: espresso and milk. For this reason, in the cappuccino we find polyphenols, proteins, fats, sugars, acids, mineral salts, alkaloids and more: those who do not have intolerances to these compounds digest the cappuccino without difficulty.
Luigi Odello points out that the problem may instead arise from the quality of the espresso and milk and how the cappuccino is prepared. As for coffee, if it has a high quantity of phenolic compounds, as it happens in low-priced products, these generate numerous bonds with the casein of the milk and make the cappuccino less digestible. Even frothing the same milk several times or doing it at too high temperatures does not help digestibility.
Photo by Unsplash / Gabriella Clare Marino
If you have any questions about coffee in Italy, leave them in the comments and we will be happy to answer them!