Coffee in moderation can improve longevity

There are lots of “good vs bad” dualities that inhabit our consciousness; light versus darkness, God versus The Devil, Superman versus The Joker, thongs versus sandals, and even tea versus coffee. Somehow coffee has garnered the bad guy image in the beverage world where tea is seen as the genteel avenue to health and polite conversation. While tea deserves its good reputation it seems from a new study that coffee may not be such a bad guy after all.

By looking only at people who had never been smokers it emerged that people who drink moderate amounts of coffee, less than five cups a day, have lower risks of death from cardiovascular disease, neurological disease, type 2 diabetes, and suicide.

The study used data drawn from more than 200,000 people who were followed up over the course of 30 years. In that time researchers assessed coffee drinking every four years using validated food questionnaires. In the 30 years of the study just under 32,000 people died from a range of causes.

Analysis showed that people who frequently drank coffee were also more likely to drink and smoke. However, when you took smoking out of the equation by looking only at people who had never been smokers it emerged that people who drink moderate amounts of coffee, less than five cups a day, have lower risks of death from cardiovascular disease, neurological disease, type 2 diabetes, and suicide.

These findings held true for both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, so it must be other chemicals in the coffee besides caffeine that are having the beneficial effects. Since five cups a day of coffee will put you over the amount of caffeine that is healthy, you should probably ensure that two or three cups a day come from a good water decaffeinated coffee. In all though, it seems that a few cups of coffee a day may not be so bad after all.