While coffee helps us function, it could also potentially be an elixir to a longer life. Drinking 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee per day, even with sugar, could help you live longer.
An international team of scientists (and fellow coffee lovers) spent seven years looking at the caffeinated drinking habits of 171,000 participants from the UK, all of whom had no known heart disease or cancer.
The authors found that participants who drank any amount of unsweetened coffee were 16% to 21% less likely to die within that seven-year period, compared to those who did not drink coffee. They also found that participants who liked their coffee sweet, drinking it with one teaspoon of sugar, had a 29% to 31% lower chance of passing away.
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Results were inconclusive for those who drank coffee with artificial sweetener.
The researchers caution that for maximum benefits, coffee drinkers should consume no more than 3.5 cups per day, and limit the amount of sugar with each coffee. Based on this data, there is no need for most coffee drinkers to eliminate that cup of joe from their diet, but they should be cautious about ordering calorie-laden frappacinos!
The study was published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
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