Drink coffee, die later

Drink coffee, die later

Sorry tea-drinkers, if it’s longevity you’re after, it’s time to switch to an alternative caffeine source. A study of almost half a million people from ten European countries found drinking three cups of coffee a day may help you live longer.

If three cups a day sounds like nothing to a sleep-deprived busy go-getter, even drinking up to eight cups a day was associated with a lower mortality risk compared to people who don’t drink coffee at all. And it’s not the caffeine doing it for you, even decaf lovers benefitted. Coffee has been shown to have protective effects against cardiovascular diseases like heart disease and strokes, despite its caffeine content affecting blood pressure and heart rate: drink three to five cups a day and you have the lowest risk for cardiovascular disease; drink five or more and your risk is no different than that of people who don’t touch the stuff. There must be something in the beans.

Or is there? Sceptics point out that correlation does not imply causation and coffee drinkers may have a healthier lifestyle than others—people who can afford three cups of coffee a day may be richer and have better access to healthcare, or they may spend more time socialising over their coffee which boosts wellbeing.

But coffee also contains hundreds of different compounds and offers some important health benefits. Antioxidants protect us from oxidative stress and help lower chronic inflammation, which is associated with ageing and common diseases including cardiovascular disease. In fact, in the Western diet, coffee outranks both fruit and vegetables combined as the biggest source of antioxidants. It’s possible coffee drinkers are getting the health boost desperately needed in the low-veggie-intake diet much of Western society prescribes to and thus living longer. A single cup of coffee contains up to 11 percent of the daily recommended intake of riboflavin (vitamin B2), 6 percent of pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), 3 percent of manganese and potassium, and 2 percent of magnesium and niacin (vitamin B3)—drink multiple cups per day and these add up quickly.

In addition, studies have shown coffee drinkers have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type 2 diabetes and liver diseases, with one study showing a link between coffee and a protective effect against liver cancer. Other studies show coffee may make you happier, reducing the risk of depression by 20 percent and the risk of suicide by 53 percent, but whether this is down to the coffee or the socialisation aspect is unclear.

If you’re a coffee aficionado, this is assurance your intake may well be good for you, but if you prefer tea or nothing at all, this is not adequate proof for conversion to the darker side. While the data may show a decreased mortality rate for coffee drinkers, increasing your intake or drinking coffee purely for the perceived health benefits isn’t a great idea, and especially watch your intake if you’re pregnant.