Those who reported drinking one to five cups of any type of coffee per day were less likely to have died during follow-up than those who did not drink coffee, the authors reported in Circulation.
Advertisement
The benefit held true for drinking caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, suggesting it’s not just the caffeine providing health perks but possibly the naturally occurring chemical compounds in the coffee beans.
Non-smokers who drank 1.1 to 3 cups of coffee per day had a 15 percent lower risk of dying earlier when compared to their non-coffee drinking counterparts, with decreased risk in those drinking slightly more or slightly less coffee per day than that.
Go ahead and pour yourself another cup of coffee.
Other research has found evidence that coffee can help people recover from colon cancer, lower diabetes risk and reduce the inflammationassociated with diabetes and heart disease.
“Bioactive compounds in coffee reduce insulin resistance and systematic inflammation”, he said.
Every four years, they assessed coffee drinking with food questionnaires. Study author, Honglei Chen, MD, PhD, told Prevention.com that the proposed reason coffee makes you feel good is because of those trusty antioxidants.
“This doesn’t mean you should start drinking coffee in the hopes of getting health benefits”, said Lichtenstein, who is also a professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University in Boston.
Previous studies found inconsistent associations between coffee drinking and risk of total and cause-specific death. The researchers also tracked coffee consumption among the participants over the years and found a pattern emerge that was directly related to how much coffee they drank on an average day. Yet, more studies are needed to investigate the biological mechanisms that produce these effects.
Advisers to the USA government say new dietary proposals should mention the benefits of coffee, which include protection against diabetes, Parkinson’s and liver cancer.
The study was large, including more than 200,000 women and 50,000 men.
The analysis took into account other factors that could have influenced the results including smoking, body mass index, levels of physical activity, alcohol consumption and diet. People who drink more coffee also are more likely to smoke, drink, and to eat red meat. People who drink regular, moderate amounts of coffee are less likely to die from a range of diseases, from diabetes to heart disease.
It is important to note, though, that “coffee” does, in fact, imply different things in different parts of the world.
Advertisement
She added: “But more research is needed to fully understand how coffee affects our body and what it is in coffee that may affect a person’s risk of heart attack or stroke”. “They might be responsible for the inverse association between coffee and mortality”.
