Here's Why Sweetened Coffee Can Extended Your Life
Over the last five years, countless studies have proved that regular coffee consumption can help you avoid death’s implacable grip.
However, like with any medical research on coffee and health, those studies in the coffee category are grossly inadequate, failing to define what defines a cup or account for additions like cream or sugar.
A new study from Chinese experts has attempted to address the latter, revealing even more good news for coffee drinkers on a daily basis.
The study, which was published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that people who drank 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee per day, whether plain black or sweetened with a small amount of sugar, were 29 percent to 31 percent less likely to die from any cause over the course of the seven-year study.
The study’s data came from the UK Biobank, a long-term database of over half a million people’s health records that has supplied a plethora of information for recent coffee-related health research.
“They discovered that consuming modest amounts of coffee on a regular basis was connected with a lower risk of dying from any cause, dying from cancer, and dying from heart disease,” said Christina Wee, Deputy Editor of Annals of Internal Medicine. “Whether you drank decaffeinated coffee, instant coffee, or ground coffee, there was a decreased risk of dying associated with moderate levels of coffee consumption.”
More than 185,000 African-Americans, Native Americans, Hawaiians, Japanese-Americans, and Latinos were surveyed in a second study led by researchers at the University of Southern California. The study discovered a 12 percent reduction in death risk for persons who drank one cup per day across all demographics and an 18 percent reduction for those who drank three cups per day. The study found that consuming coffee was linked to a lower risk of death from heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and respiratory and kidney illness in all of the populations studied.
“Until recently, few data on the link between coffee intake and mortality in nonwhites in the United States and worldwide have been available,” according to the study. “These studies are critical since lifestyle habits and illness risks differ significantly among racial and ethnic groups, and findings from one group may not necessarily apply to others.”
Many previous studies have suggested why coffee may help individuals live longer, and one new study went even further, finding that lighter roasts may have more death-defying benefits than darker roasts.
Although Veronica W. Setiawan, a USC associate professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine and principal author of the study on non-white populations, reminds us of some health benefits of coffee that we now know to be true, neither of these recent studies looked at causation.
“Coffee includes a lot of antioxidants and phenolic chemicals that help prevent cancer,” Setiawan explained. “While this study can not prove causation or identify which compounds in coffee are responsible for the ‘elixir effect,’ it is evident that coffee may be incorporated into a healthy diet and lifestyle.”