Around 30-40% of the world’s population consume coffee daily. In the USA, these figures are much higher and equate to about 65% In Canada, coffee is more popular than tap water in with 71% of Canadians drinking coffee regularly compared to 63%. Black, with cream, latte, iced – in all forms it is popular around the world. But is coffee actually healthy?
Everyone knows how they like their coffee, when they like it, sometimes in a special mug. Too much coffee can give you the jitters….something which makes us think it is not healthy. Mormons call out coffee and alcohol as bad and it wrong for them to consume it. But studies keep claiming that coffee, in moderation, might help you live longer and have better health.
Early research of coffee suggested it could lead to health problems, recent research provides strong evidence drinking coffee actually has a variety of health benefits.
“The overall evidence has been pretty convincing coffee has been more healthful than harmful in terms of health outcomes,” said Frank Hu, chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in an April 5, 2021, article in Discover. “For most people, moderate coffee consumption can be incorporated into a healthy diet.”
Hu said moderate coffee intake—about 2–5 cups a day—is linked to a lower likelihood of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, liver and endometrial cancers, Parkinson’s disease, and depression. It’s even possible people who drink coffee can reduce their risk of early death.
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A study surveyed residents of the UK analyzed how coffee habits affect people’s overall health. These people were grouped and asked about their habits, including how many cups of coffee they consumed on a daily basis, and other factors such as smoking and more. Popular Science reports: “Across 502,641 participants ranging from 38 to 73 years old, both male and female, show the more coffee a person drank the less likely they were to die.”
Since the study is completely observational, researchers can’t imply causation, and can only speculate with the numbers and results they were given. The study grouped participants according to six ways of consuming coffee: those who drank less than one cup a day, those who drank one cup a day, two or three a day, four to five, and so on. The last category was for those who consumed more than eight cups of coffee a day. The study found the more people drank coffee, lived longer.
While the results are positive for coffee lovers, Popular Science points out there may be other influencing factors. For example, users have diseases like cancer might not drink coffee and are at higher risks of dying.
While studies like this one have been conducted in the past, this is the first one to account for genetic variations in caffeine metabolism, meaning the research accounted for people’s different reactions to caffeine. An example of this is someone who drinks coffee at night and still sleeps soundly. The research logically found those who have a higher tolerance for coffee were found to consume more coffee on average.
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It seems a healthy amount of coffee, even decaffeinated, gives us a discernible health boost despite found the reason. Scientists argue it could be the compounds in the drink (lignans, quinides, and magnesium) that give us a health benefit or the drink’s antioxidant properties. Someday we’ll know. Hopefully.
