Another week, another coffee-is-good-for-you study that caught people’s attention. New search found a link between regular coffee consumption and a reduced risk of death. While the results are the latest to suggest coffee is perfectly safe to drink, they’re not necessarily strong evidence that your daily cup of coffee saves lives.
The study was conducted by researchers from Southern Medical University in China and was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. He looked at data from the UK Biobank, a long-running research project that tracks the health of the UK residents. As part of the project, people detailed their eating habits, including their coffee consumption.
Compared to people who did not report drinking coffee, the researchers found, people who drank coffee (up to and above 4.5 cups per day) were less likely to die from any cause over a period of seven-year of follow-up-rising period. This pattern held true after controlling for other factors like a person’s lifestyle, and even when people reported drinking sugary coffee.
“Moderate consumption of unsweetened and sweetened coffee was associated with a lower risk of death,” study finds. authors wrote.
Like Gizmodo did covered before, it’s far from the first job suggest that coffee is good for you. Other studies have found a link between coffee consumption and a lower risk of heart failure, liver damage and even premature death. Overall, these studies outnumber those that suggest coffee may harm health. So at this point there is not much debate on the left as to whether coffee is an “unhealthy” food, at least for the average person. (Ppeople with certain conditions, such as clinical anxiety, might want to avoid the stimulating effects of caffeine, yet.)
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That said, studying the benefits and harms of foods is always difficult, and nutrition scientists generally have to conduct research that has major limitations. This study, the authors themselves note, only looked at people’s diets at one time. Some people may have started or stopped drinking coffee after the start of the study. It’s also possible that people misremember their typical diet, a well-known flaw in such surveys.
But perhaps the most important caveat is that correlation is not necessarily causation. People who drink coffee may be different from those who intentionally abstain. They may tend to exercise more or follow a healthier diet, for example. Scientists try to accommodate these types of factors, but it is often impossible to completely eliminate this type of noise in the data.
Interestingly, the study did not find the same correlation for artificially sweet coffee. This could mean that mixing your espresso with Splenda instead of a packet of sugar makes the drink less healthy.but it could also be an example of why these conclusions may not be as solid as the headlines make them seem.
This type of research, known as an observational study, is an important part of science. Oftenwe just can’t run a gold-standard clinical trial for testing theories about the world. But we shouldn’t take the numbers that a single study spits out as gospel either (in this one, the associated risk of premature death was up to 30% lower for coffee drinkers). Given the bulk of the evidence, you can rest easy knowing that drinking coffee in moderation is unlikely to harm you.. But any conclusion beyond it is more trouble.
And honestly, who cares? I definitely don’t take my daily coffee because I think I’ll live longer as a result – I just like the taste and the morning pep it gives me.
#Coffee #Live #Longer #complicated
