More and more studies have come out highlighting the benefits of coffee. The drink was once considered a vice and something to be avoided. But a new study shows that consuming manageable amounts of coffee has its benefits, particularly when it comes to cardiovascular health.
The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, shows how beneficial coffee is, even while accounting for sugar. Researchers in the U.K. found that those who consumed coffee on a daily basis had a lower risk of death when compared to non-coffee drinkers.
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The study looked into the data of 120,000 people with an average age of 57 who drank sweetened or unsweetened coffee for over seven years. Participants who drank their coffee sweetened had a teaspoon of sugar per cup of coffee and were still 16% to 21% less likely to die when compared to those who didn’t drink coffee at all.
Unsweetened coffee drinkers were 29% to 31% less likely to die when compared to non-coffee drinkers.
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Still, despite the encouraging evidence, researchers had no way of knowing if their results were driven by coffee or by some outside factor; either coffee’s health benefits could trigger this response, or coffee drinkers could have better health care and more time to work out, thus having longer lifespans.
While this study shouldn’t be a license to drink any type of calorie-rich coffee drink you want, it’s a gentle reminder of the benefits of coffee — and evidence that a little bit of sugar won’t do much harm.
