Moderate coffee drinking may be linked to reduced risk of death

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.

According to the study, it didn’t matter if it was caffeinated or decaf which suggests it’s not the caffeine providing the health benefits but possibly a few naturally occurring chemical compounds in the coffee beans.

That data found that people who drank moderate amounts of coffee daily – less than 5 cups per day – had a lower risk of death from heart disease, neurological diseases, Type 2 diabetes and suicide.

Wagner enjoys her three cups a day for the taste, but like many coffee lovers, she appreciates the energy boost she gets from the caffeine.

In the whole study population, moderate coffee consumption was associated with reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, and suicide.

“Bioactive compounds in coffee reduce insulin resistance and systemic inflammation”, said the study’s co-author Ming Ding, a doctoral student at Harvard’s Department of Nutrition, in the press release.

Researchers examined coffee drinking with food questionnaires after every four years and followed the participants for up to 30 years. “It’s very hard to pinpoint which component of coffee is responsible for the benefit”. Researchers found the same benefits associated with decaffeinated coffee.

Although previous studies have suggested that drinking coffee could protect against cancers such as prostate and liver, the current study did not find lower rates of cancer deaths among java drinkers. And the chlorogenic acid in coffee may help reduce it throughout your body. “However, more studies are needed to investigate the biological mechanisms producing these effects”.

The findings are based on more than 200,000 US doctors, nurses and other health professionals who were surveyed repeatedly over nearly three decades.

That evidence, Hu noted, has already been incorporated into the latest US dietary guidelines, which say that a healthy diet can include up to three to five cups of coffee a day. People who drink regular, moderate amounts of coffee are less likely to die from a range of diseases, from diabetes to heart disease.

“Regular consumption of coffee can be included as part of a healthy, balanced diet”, said senior author Frank Hu, M.D., Ph.D., a Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard. Therefore, more research will be needed in order to precisely determine how coffee affects the body.

“Caffeine certainly has a few effect, but there are over 1000 other different substances and there’s probably a number of other things that contribute, so it’s probably not just one thing”, Hodge said.