Conflicting Study on Coffee and Health

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With all of the studies out there showing health benefits from coffee consumption, a new study published yesterday found that heavy coffee consumption may be associated with a higher death risk in men and women under 55. The study, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, men under 55 who drank more than 28 cups of coffee per week were 56% more likely to have died from any cause. The study spanned data collected from 1971 to 2002.

However, it does seem safe to drink 1-3 cups of coffee per day without any health endangerment. One cup of coffee in this study was defined as 6-8 ounces, so that is about 1.5 gallons of coffee per week as the cutoff for what is considered healthy.

The reasons behind the higher death risk are not clear, especially since experts have found many health benefits associated with coffee.  For example, a 2012 National Cancer Institute study found that older adults who drank coffee had an overall lower death risk than those who did not, and that the more coffee that was consumed, the more the person’s death risk declined!

The main takeaway here seems to be to continue to keep drinking coffee in moderation- keep it to under 1.5 gallons per week.

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