It’s official: Drinking coffee helps you live longer, study says

Good Morning! A new study brings good news for lovers of this drink. Drinking coffee is associated with a lower risk of premature death – virtually regardless of how much you drink and whether you opt for the normal or decaffeinated version.

The findings were published yesterday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine and shared by the American magazine TIME.

“We found an inverse association between coffee drinking and mortality, including those who report eating only one cup a day, and up to eight or more daily, or who opt for the express, instant or decaffeinated versions,” said study author , researcher Erikka Loftfield of the National Cancer Institute in the United States.

The researchers used data collected by the British Biobank, through which thousands of volunteers completed questionnaires related to their health, underwent physical examinations and provided biological samples. For the study in question, the academics also analyzed additional information on 500,000 people who answered questions about their consumption of coffee, alcohol and tobacco intake, as well as providing information about their health history. During the 10 years that the research lasted, about 14,200 individuals died.

Researchers found benefits associated with longevity when they observed almost all levels and types of coffee consumption. On average, and compared to those who do not drink coffee, those who consume one cup per day have a lower risk of premature death of 8% – a rate that surprisingly increased as consumption also increased, reaching 16% among those who drank between six and seven cups of coffee daily.

The discovery, combined with the apparent apparent effect of increasing longevity even among those consuming only decaf, suggests that caffeine will not be the substance that promotes longer life expectancy, Loftfield said.

“Our current understanding of the relationship between drinking coffee and maintaining health / longevity is based only on observational studies and as such will require further research to understand why this happens,” the researcher explained.