More great news for all of us coffee drinkers! The latest really big, really prestigious study on the health effects of coffee concluded that coffee drinkers are a little bit more likely to live longer. And a little bit more likely is good enough for me!
The study of 400,000 people is the largest ever done on this issue and was headed up by some pretty heavy hitters – the lead researcher is a scientist at the National Cancer Institute and the study was performed by the National Institutes of Health and AARP and reported in The New England Journal of Medicine.
So what was the most surprising conclusion of this huge study conducted by these prestigious scientists? No one knows what it is about coffee that's good for you! And don't say it must be the caffeine because caffeine wasn't the focus of the study.
The specific results? Compared to those who drank no coffee, men who had two or three cups a day were 10 percent less likely to die at any age. For women, it was 13 percent. And even a single cup a day seemed to lower risk a little: 6 percent in men and 5 percent in women. The strongest effect was in women who had four or five cups a day. They had a 16 percent lower risk of death!
And what kind of diseases can coffee protect you against? The study showed that coffee drinkers were less likely to die from heart or respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, injuries, accidents or infections. Yes – it even lowers the risk of accidental death!
Now before you get too coffee crazy, just be aware – the study didn't actually prove that coffee drinkers live longer. Just that there is a positive relationship between drinking coffee and living longer. Again, not too scientific but good enough for me.
The only cautions for coffee drinkers – easy on the sugar and cream as too much of these can negate the positive effects of coffee. And drink filtered coffee rather than boiled as filtering removes compounds that can raise bad cholesterol.
Having said all of that, I think I'll do something healthy for myself and go have some coffee!
© Kim Selzman 2012 All Rights Reserved
