Good news: Your coffee-drinking habit could be extending your life
If you’ve ever felt guilty about that cup of coffee in the morning, you might not need to anymore.
Two studies found that a single cup of coffee a day reduces the risk of dying early and cuts the chance of death from digestive problems.
The United States study, led by the University of Southern California, involved 186,000 people. It found that people who consume just one cup per day saw their chance of dying early drop by 12 percent. Three cups of coffee reduced the risk by 18 percent, according to The Telegraph.
Researchers from USC said that coffee can have a protective effect due to its antioxidants, according to The Telegraph.
“Coffee contains a lot of antioxidants and phenolic compounds that play an important role in cancer prevention,” study leader Dr. Veronica Setiawan, associate professor of preventative medicine at USC, told The Daily Mail. “If you like to drink coffee, drink up. If you’re not a coffee drinker, then you need to consider if you should start.”
Previous research at USC and other institutions have correlated coffee drinking with reduced risk of cancer, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases.
The other study, performed in Europe by Imperial College London, involved more than 500,000 people from 10 EU countries. After considering factors like diet and smoking, researchers found that the group with the highest consumption of coffee had a lower risk for all-causes of death.
In a sub-group of 14,000 people, the British researchers also found that people who drink coffee have healthier livers and better glucose control than people who don’t.
According to the Harvard School of Public Health,54 percent of Americans over the age of 18 drink coffee every day and those Americans drink 3.1 cups per day.
Both studies were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
This story was originally published July 10, 2017 at 8:07 PM with the headline "Good news: Your coffee-drinking habit could be extending your life."