Best news ever for coffee drinkers: It could help you live longer

There’s nothing like a hot cup of coffee (or two) in the morning to really get you going. We’ve heard of plenty of benefits of coffee, but now one huge study has confirmed what we always wanted to hear: our favourite caffeinated beverage will make us live longer.

A Harvard University study of 200,000 people, for over 28 years, discovered those who drank three to five cups of coffee a day were less likely to die of heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and even had lower suicide rates.

“Our study found that coffee drinking was associated with a lower risk of total mortality,” says Dr. Ming Ding, a doctoral student at Harvard University and author of the study.

“Bioactive compounds lignans, quinides, trigonelline, and magnesium in coffee reduce insulin resistance and systematic inflammation”. This means that decaf drinkers can also get benefits from the black stuff, because caffeine isn’t the good part.

One bad note for smokers is that if you drink coffee, you negate all its benefits.

So what’s how many coffees can you drink to get the full strength of its powers? “Compared to non-drinkers, coffee consumption one to five cups/d was associated with lower risk of mortality, while coffee consumption more than five cups/d was not associated with risk of mortality,” says the study.

There you have it! Non-coffee drinkers needn’t feel too bad: you likely have lower blood pressure, better quality sleep and save a lot of money.

Tell us, how many cups of coffee do you have a day?