Do you drink coffee every day? Are you a coffee lover? Maybe you’ve recently brought a new coffee machine online (e.g. you’ve been on greatcoffeebrewers.com and found the perfect coffee maker) and want to enjoy drinking coffee to your heart’s content. Many people can’t get through the day without a couple of cups of coffee. Some even drink 5 or more cups every single day. Whilst others might just prefer to drink new flavours off sites like Associatedcoffee.com just because they enjoy it. While most drink coffee for the caffeine, there could be health benefits to the habit too. So is coffee healthy for you?
Is Coffee Healthy for You?
A new study analyzed the coffee consumption habits and subsequent mortality of over 200,000 participants over a span of 21 to 28 years. The researchers found that coffee consumption of up to 5 cups a day was associated with a significant reduction in mortality. Specifically, a cup a day or less was associated with a 5% reduction in mortality; 1.1 to 3 cups a day was associated with a 9% reduction in mortality; 3.1 to 5 cups a day was associated with a 7% reduction in mortality; More than 5 cups a day was associated with a 2% increase in mortality. The benefits of coffee were greater when controlling for smoking.
The researchers found reductions in cardiovascular disease, neurological diseases, and suicide. However, previous studies have also found benefits for type 2 diabetes, liver cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer. Here are the cardiovascular disease and heart disease benefits found in another study.
The downside to coffee is the loss of sleep and anxiety associated with too much caffeine. However, the researchers found health benefits from both regular and decaf coffee. So, opt for decaf coffee if you suffer from these problems.
Conclusion:
Coffee is healthy for you. The researchers suggested that the benefits could be due to “the chlorogenic acid, lignans, quinides, trigonelline, and magnesium in coffee [that] reduce insulin resistance and systematic inflammation.” So don’t be afraid to drink a couple of cups of coffee a day!
Citations:
Ding, Ming, et al. “Association of Coffee Consumption with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality in Three Large Prospective Cohorts.” Circulation (2015): CIRCULATIONAHA-115.
O’Keefe, James H., et al. “Effects of habitual coffee consumption on cardiometabolic disease, cardiovascular health, and all-cause mortality.”Journal of the American College of Cardiology 62.12 (2013): 1043-1051.
