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Just in time to celebrate International Coffee Day, a new study has shown that drinking two or three cups of coffee (caffeinated or not) a day could have some long-lasting health benefits.
Coffee lovers will be happy to know that they may have a lower chance of dying from certain diseases than those who don’t drink coffee at all. This comes after a recent study published its findings around coffee and mortality over a long period of time.
Marc Gunter, who heads the nutrition and metabolism section of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, is the lead researcher of the study, which is thought to be the largest of its kind. He and his team followed more than 500,000 people from 10 European countries over the course of 16 years to uncover key differences between coffee drinkers and those who abstain from drinking it.
According to Gunter, the study found that compared with those who don’t drink coffee, those who do show signs of having healthier livers and circulatory systems, as well as lower levels of inflammation. The findings also indicated that “higher coffee consumption was associated with a reduced risk of death from any cause,” including circulatory diseases and digestive diseases.
There have been smaller studies before which have linked coffee drinking to increased resistance to certain ailments. Gunter’s findings, however, provide the most substantial evidence to date and over a large period of time. The main objective of the study was to examine whether coffee consumption is associated with all-cause and cause-specific mortality. The research found that coffee drinkers had the lowest all-cause mortality rate.
Gunter said: “This digestive disease relationship, which was strongest for liver disease deaths, is particularly striking.”
The next step of the research is to analyse coffee chemical compounds to get a fuller picture of its benefits and how they affect the body.
This is excellent news for coffee drinkers around the world who now have a great excuse to celebrate International Coffee Day in caffeinated bliss. International Coffee Day is an annual occasion that is used to promote and celebrate coffee as a beverage, with events now occurring in places across the world since its inception in 2015.
Originally appeared on Southlands Sun.
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