Study: Reducing coffee consumption may reduce the risk of premature death"

Study: Reducing coffee consumption may reduce the risk of premature death.

Study suggests drinking less coffee during this time could reduce risk of premature death Coffee drinking is often linked to a healthier heart and a longer lifespan, but the benefits of drinking coffee may depend on when you drink it. 

New research finds that limiting coffee to the early morning may be the best option, and that seems to be the case regardless of how much you drink and other factors that might influence it, according to a study published Tuesday in the European Heart Journal

This is the first study to examine timing patterns of coffee consumption and health outcomes,” said lead author Dr. Lu Qi, HCA Regents Distinguished Chair and professor at Tulane University’s Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, in a news release. “We don’t typically make recommendations about when to give nutritional advice, but perhaps we should consider that in the future.” 

According to the new study, most previous research looking at coffee consumption over time periods has found that moderate coffee consumption may be associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and premature death. But scientific evidence on whether factors such as genetics, intake, or added sweeteners influence these relationships is inconsistent and sometimes controversial, the authors said. 

The authors looked at diet and health data from 40,725 adults aged 18 and older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which was conducted from 1999 to 2018. In 10 rounds over the years, participants provided details about their food intake on the previous day. The authors also included a subgroup of 1,463 adults from the Lifestyle Examination Study who filled out food diaries for at least one week.

Both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee were included in the study. The time period was divided into three periods: morning (04.00-11.59), afternoon (12.00-16.59), and evening (17.00-03.59). The researchers identified two patterns of consumption: morning and all day. At the end of the approximately 10-year follow-up period, there were 4,295 deaths from all causes, 1,268 deaths from heart disease, and 934 deaths from cancer.

Compared with those who did not drink coffee, those who drank coffee only in the morning had a 16% lower risk of premature death from any cause and a 31% lower risk of death from heart disease. Those who drank coffee all day had no reduced risk. The results persisted even after the authors took into account confounding factors such as sleep duration, age, race, ethnicity, gender, family income, education, physical activity level, nutritional scores, and health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. 

For morning coffee drinkers, the amount of caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee does not matter, whether they drink less or more than one cup per day. Morning coffee is still better than other forms in terms of mortality risk “This study was observational, meaning it was not a trial, which is the gold standard,” Vanessa King, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics who was not involved in the study, said by email.

 The nature of the study also means it is only looking at an association, not a causal relationship, between morning coffee consumption and risk of premature death. But the findings are “important because cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States,” King said.