Could your java habit help you live longer?
Categories: Eating & nutrition, Weird but true, Sleep
Good news if you're a coffee junkie: that venti drip could possibly prolong your life, and it certainly won't kill you. A new study has found that coffee drinkers -- even those guzzling decaf -- had slightly lower death rates than their coffee-free peers.
The best news for sleep-deprived parents, though, is that drinking a LOT of coffee isn't any worse for you than drinking a little. The study found that women who consume two to three cups of coffee a day showed an 18 percent reduction in death from all causes, while drinking four to five cups was associated with a 26 percent reduction.
Apparently I am going to live forever (let's just say five cups is a bare minimum for me every day).
The health benefits of coffee include a reduction in inflammation, which may in turn reduce the risk of heart disease, and a lowering of blood sugar levels, which may stave off diabetes. And of course when you're all jacked up on the coffee, it's hard to sit still, so you may get some incidental exercise in there, too.
Okay, that last one wasn't from the study. But you know it's true.
According to researcher Esther Lopez-Garcia, Ph.D. of the University of Madrid, "We can't say from this one study that coffee extends your life, but it does appear that it doesn't increase the risk for death for people who are healthy." So the moral really seems to be this: if you're downing three (or more) cups of coffee every day in an attempt to compensate for sleepless nights and jam-packed days, you may not be compromising your health as badly as you might think.
In other words, the coffee may not make you live longer, but it probably won't kill you, which is good news for moms and dads everywhere.
The best news for sleep-deprived parents, though, is that drinking a LOT of coffee isn't any worse for you than drinking a little. The study found that women who consume two to three cups of coffee a day showed an 18 percent reduction in death from all causes, while drinking four to five cups was associated with a 26 percent reduction.
Apparently I am going to live forever (let's just say five cups is a bare minimum for me every day).
The health benefits of coffee include a reduction in inflammation, which may in turn reduce the risk of heart disease, and a lowering of blood sugar levels, which may stave off diabetes. And of course when you're all jacked up on the coffee, it's hard to sit still, so you may get some incidental exercise in there, too.
Okay, that last one wasn't from the study. But you know it's true.
According to researcher Esther Lopez-Garcia, Ph.D. of the University of Madrid, "We can't say from this one study that coffee extends your life, but it does appear that it doesn't increase the risk for death for people who are healthy." So the moral really seems to be this: if you're downing three (or more) cups of coffee every day in an attempt to compensate for sleepless nights and jam-packed days, you may not be compromising your health as badly as you might think.
In other words, the coffee may not make you live longer, but it probably won't kill you, which is good news for moms and dads everywhere.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Angie Felton 6-19-2008 @ 9:22AM
Thanks, Starbucks! I'm broke but I will NEVER die!
Reply
carlabirnberg 6-19-2008 @ 6:41PM
thank you Lord.
Mama too tired not to hit the coffee.
Carla
Reply