Coffee May Help You Live Longer

Today we have more good news for all our coffee drinkers around the world. Another new study finds that drinking coffee can help you live longer. Or does it?

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health recently discovered that drinking between three and five cups of coffee a day may prevent certain illnesses. They found that coffee can protect against heart disease, brain diseases, type 2 diabetes and suicide.

Walter Willett is a nutrition researcher at Harvard. Willet says the findings extend to both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee-or decaf, as Americans often call it. So, the health benefits come not just from the caffeine in coffee, but from the compounds in the beans. However, the researchers found no link between coffee drinking and cancer.

All things in moderation. This Harvard research adds to a growing body of evidence. This body of evidence finds drinking a moderate of coffee may have many health benefits, including a longer life. This is according to one of the researchers involved in the study.

Frank Hu is senior author of the study. He is also a professor of nutrition and epidemiology. He studies how food affects illness. Hu adds that data from the study support the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Report. This report found that drinking a moderate amount of coffee can be part of a healthy diet. But how much and when you drink coffee is important. You may remember another study we reported on recently. That study said drinking coffee too late in the evening can disrupt your sleep.

Questions

Not everyone feels the recent Harvard study confirms anything.

The news organization NPR spoke with one expert who warns that not everyone reacts to coffee the same way. Andrew Maynard of Arizona State University told NPR that the health benefits documented in this new study are "small."

Maynard says the study does not prove cause and effect between drinking coffee and living longer. He says the study points to an association, or link, between drinking coffee and living longer. Even those involved in the research still have questions. When NPR spoke with study co-author Walter Willett, he said he is not sure how coffee is linked to certain health benefits.

Willett says the take-home message - in other words, the important thing to learn - is that if you like coffee, do not feel guilty about drinking it in moderation. If you don't like coffee, don't feel you have to start drinking it to be healthy.