Great news for coffee lovers!

For many years we’ve suspected coffee was good for us, but now a massive Japanese study has provided the most conclusive evidence so far that regular cups of black gold can keep a host of illnesses away.

Scientists at Japan’s National Cancer Centre tracked more than 90,000 people and found strikingly unambiguous results – drinking two to five cups of coffee per day clearly lowered the risks of mortality, including from melanoma, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.

“The habitual intake of coffee is associated with lower risk of total mortality and three leading causes of death in Japan,” the researchers wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

One of the best findings was that the type of coffee you drink didn’t seem to affect the results all that much, meaning a cup of Moccona will yield the same health benefits as a macchiato.

A growing swag of research has shown links between drinking several cups of coffee per day and a reduced risk of multiple sclerosis, liver cancer, dementia, skin cancer, breast cancer, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, respiratory disease, colorectal cancer, and type 2 diabetes.

Coffee is an incredibly complex beverage, made up of more than 1000 different chemical compounds, so the search is now on to find out exactly why coffee gives us this health hit. In your daily cup, there is caffeine, of course, along with a wide range of antioxidants, proteins, fats, minerals, and a class of aromatic geegaws called pyridines.

In recent years, an extract from green coffee beans has been touted as a weightloss supplement, however science has found no conclusive evidence that it works.

Regardless, if you’re enjoying a cuppa Joe right now, do so in the knowledge that, for now at least, it’s good for your health!

Are you a coffee drinker? How many do you have per day?