If you like coffee, here’s some good news.
A new study just came out that suggests visiting your local Starbucks is likely to become even more popular.
It shows that drinking coffee not only lowers the death rate from cardiovascular disease but also lowers the death rate from all causes!
The researchers studied 28,561 men and women for six years. During that time, 2,121 died. The two major causes of death were cardiovascular disease (43.1%) and cancer (35.7%). The researchers then looked at the death rates depending on how much coffee the men and women routinely drank. The results were amazing.
The men who drank three to four cups per day turned out to be 17% less likely to die from anything. The women did even better. Coffee drinking in them was associated with a whopping 37% decreased chance of dying from anything.
This reminds me of my grandmother, who was kicking butt and taking numbers right up until she died in her sleep right before her 101st birthday. To my dismay, she never ever exercised, and she refused to take any supplements. But one thing she definitely did was drink a pot of coffee every day. Fortunately, it gets even better.
The other thing that grandmother did was to avoid smoking and limit alcohol to one glass of wine a day. When the researchers specifically looked at men and women who drank three to four cups of coffee a day, did not smoke, and either did not drink alcohol at all or drank only moderately, the results were even better.
That group had a 29% decrease in dying from cardiovascular disease and a 41% decrease in dying from cancer. According to the authors, “Coffee consumption was associated with decreased risk of mortality. The protective effect was even stronger when stratification by smoking status and alcohol intake was performed.”
Drinking coffee is a healthy habit because it contains so many polyphenols. Polyphenols are a category of more than 500 chemicals that naturally occur in plants. They are especially powerful in preventing disease and slowing down aging.
Tea (especially green tea), chocolate, and berries have similarly high levels of polyphenols. So, feel free to indulge in all of these good, natural treats along with all of the other healthy habits you have. You’ll live longer and better.
Sources:
Grosso G, Stepaniak U, et al. Coffee consumption and mortality in three Eastern European countries: results from the HAPIEE (Health, Alcohol and Psychosocial factors In Eastern Europe) study. Public Health Nutr. 2017 Jan;20(1):82-91.