What’s Really Brewing in Your Coffee Maker

Most of us really look forward to that first cup of coffee in the morning. We love the flavor, the aroma and the little boost we get from it, but it turns out we may be getting more than we bargained for when it comes to our daily coffee routine.

According to a study conducted at Loyola University, we could be pouring ourselves a big cup of trouble, especially from the fancy one-cup coffee makers like Keurig. I'm not picking on Keurig here, and the problem is certainly not confined to that best known of one cup coffee makers,

Ten people turned over their coffee makers to Loyola University and allowed them to take swab samples from various areas on the coffee makers and what they found is very sobering indeed.

It seems that, among other things, researchers found staphylococcus, streptococcus and bacteria like e-coli. You might want to hold on to your hats because in one machine alone they found 100,000 colony forming units of bacteria in the water reservoir! Only two out of the ten machines tested proved to contain no no bacteria at all.

So, now that we've presented the problem, you, no doubt, would like a solution. Well, the fix is actually very easy. Experts stress that, first and foremost, you should wash your hands before you start brewing that cup of coffee and, about once a month, you should run a pot of vinegar through the machine. It's a pretty simple fix for a scary problem.

Go ahead and enjoy that cup of coffee, just make sure to follow those simple rules and save yourself a nasty gastrointestinal upset.