✉️ This story was featured in our Coffee News Club year-end wrap-up—our weekly digest of the most important stories shaping coffee.
Over the course of the year, we bring you the good and the bad of coffee health studies, with one simple goal: to figure out if coffee is actually good for you or not. We’ve been doing this for a few years now, and just like last year, the answer is: mostly?
The year started with the Food and Drug Administration announcing that coffee drinks containing fewer than five calories can officially be labeled as “healthy.” Drinking 3-4 cups of coffee per day could help slow down premature aging in those suffering from mental health conditions like schizophrenia. Coffee may lower your risk of developing various diseases, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, can reduce pain associated with endometriosis, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, can improve your mood.
Researchers continued to study the link between coffee and aging. This year, they found that coffee can reduce the risk of frailty and of developing osteoporosis, curb cognitive decline, and protect against dementia. And, assuming you take your coffee black, coffee can even help you live longer—especially if you drink it in the morning, and drink more tea and water as well.
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It wasn’t all good news (it never is). Many of us use caffeine to stay awake while driving, but a study published in November found that excessive caffeine consumption might be risky on the road. Coffee might also impact the effectiveness of antibiotics, and, if you like a late-night latte, could make you more impulsive.
While coffee health studies are by their very nature inconclusive (because they often rely on self-reported data and drinking habits), in October, a review of decades worth of research found that, in general, moderate coffee consumption is good for you.
Photo by Vadim Bozhko on Unsplash
