One more for the "coffee is good for you" camp: An unpublished, not yet peer-reviewed study presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Orlando suggests caffeinated coffee helps on the path to healthy aging. The study involved more than 47,000 female nurses who answered questions about their diets every few years from the 1970s up to 2016. That year, researchers detected 3,700 of the participants met their criteria for "healthy aging," meaning they were 70 or older and in good physical and mental health, and had no cognitive impairment or chronic diseases, reports the New York Times.
These women consumed an average of 315mg of caffeine per day, mostly from coffee, per Fox News. After adjusting for diet, exercise, and other factors that affect aging, the researchers realized those who drank the most caffeine (equivalent to almost seven 8-ounce cups of coffee per day) between the ages of 45 and 60 had a 13% higher chance of healthy aging than those who drank the least caffeine (equivalent to less than one cup per day). "We found that moderate caffeinated coffee consumption during midlife was associated with a higher likelihood of healthy aging 30 years later," lead study author Dr. Sara Mahdavi tells CNN.
Similar intake of decaffeinated coffee or tea didn't produce the same result, perhaps because the participants consumed low levels of those beverages, while drinking cola was associated with a 20% to 26% reduced chance of healthy aging. Though each additional cup of caffeinated coffee was linked to a 2% to 5% greater chance of healthy aging in this study, that doesn't mean a person should be drinking seven cups of coffee per day, or even that it's healthy to do so, Mahdavi cautions, as other research has indicated drinking more than three or four cups per day could have negative effects on health. But it appears coffee does have a particular benefit over other caffeinated beverages, a finding backed by prior research. (More coffee stories.)
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