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Coffee is always accused of harming our health. Yet it can be good for us – at least if we drink it in moderation and prepare it in a certain way.
Is coffee an integral part of your morning routine? Many of us can’t even get going without our dose of caffeine. And as long as we don’t overdo it with our coffee consumption, there’s nothing wrong with it. On the contrary, researchers at the Chinese Southern Medical University in Guangzhou have revealed in a study that hot beverages can even prolong our lives.
For their study, the physicians analyzed the data of more than 170,000 people between the ages of 37 and 73 who had participated in the British long-term study UK Biobank from 2009 to 2018. The analysis found that people who regularly drank unsweetened or lightly sweetened coffee had a lower risk of death than those who were coffee abstainers.
Lightly sweetened coffee can prolong life
According to the study, the risk of dying early appears to be related to how we drink our coffee – particularly the amount and whether and how the coffee is sweetened. The risk of death among participants who drank up to four cups of unsweetened coffee daily was up to 21 percent lower than among those who drank no coffee.
The scientists found it particularly surprising that the subjects who added a maximum of one teaspoon of a natural sweetener to their cup of coffee – for example, household sugar or honey – apparently benefited even more than those who drank their coffee straight. Their mortality risk was up to 31 percent below the average.
Incidentally, the positive effect on health was independent of the caffeine content. The study did not seem to make any difference in whether the participants consumed caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee.
Study on coffee consumption: What is the reason for the health-promoting effect?
The scientists now want to investigate further the reason for lightly sweetened coffee’s positive effect. An initial assumption that now needs to be verified is that the hot beverage contains antioxidants in combination with the anti-inflammatory properties of sugar – but these only come into play when the sweet substance is consumed in moderation. After all, too much sugar is detrimental to health in any case. The official recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) for adults is a maximum of 25 to 50 grams of sugar per day. And as long as the exact cause of the effect has not been clarified, it remains questionable how meaningful the study results are.
Whether the connection between sweetened coffee and increased life expectancy is confirmed must be shown in further studies. But for fans of sweet coffee, the study is undoubtedly good news for now!
Sources used: Annals of Internal Medicine, nytimes.com, welt.de./picture: Bild von 旭刚 史 auf Pixabay
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