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Drinking coffee may be linked to a decreased risk of death. Researchers at Boston’s Tufts University said Monday that drinking one to two cups of caffeinated coffee a day was tied to a lower risk of all causes of death and particularly death from cardiovascular disease.
They found that black coffee and coffee with low levels of added sugar and saturated fat were associated with a 14 percent lower risk. But the same link was not observed for coffee with high amounts of added sugar and saturated fat.
“Coffee is among the most-consumed beverages in the world, and with nearly half of American adults reporting drinking at least one cup per day, it’s important for us to know what it might mean for health,” Fang Fang Zhang, the Neely Family Professor at the Friedman School, said in a statement. “The health benefits of coffee might be attributable to its bioactive compounds, but our results suggest that the addition of sugar and saturated fat may reduce the mortality benefits.”
Zhang was the senior author of the National Institutes of Health-supported study, which was published on Monday in The Journal of Nutrition.
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Coffee consumption is linked to a lower risk of all causes of death, researchers at Tufts University say. Drinking up to three cups can be beneficial (Getty Images/iStock)
In the observational study, the authors analyzed data from nine consecutive cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, examining 46,000 adults above the age of 20 who completed a valid assessment of what they had consumed over the course of 24 hours on the first day of the study. The data was recorded from 1999 to 2018.
Ultimately, they found that drinking one cup of coffee daily was associated with a 16 percent lower risk of death. That risk rose by a percentage when drinking two-to-three cups. But, more cups didn’t have additional effects, and the link between coffee and a lower risk of death by cardiovascular disease weakened when coffee consumption was more than three cups per day.
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Drinking one to two cups of coffee with low levels of added sugar and saturated fat was associated with a 14 percent lower risk of death. Black coffee was associated with the same lower risk (Getty Images)
The research builds on previous research supporting the conclusions from Tulane University. A decade-long study of 40,000 American adults found that people who were specifically morning coffee drinkers were 31 percent less likely to die of cardiovascular disease and 16 percent less likely to die earlier of any cause than those who drank no coffee.
“Few studies have examined how coffee additives could impact the link between coffee consumption and mortality risk, and our study is among the first to quantify how much sweetener and saturated fat are being added,” first author Dr. Bingjie Zhou said. “Our results align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans which recommend limiting added sugar and saturated fat.”
