If a multitude of studies have already shown the many virtues of daily coffee consumption (for the heart, longevity, depression or even diabetes), none had made the distinction between sweetened and unsweetened coffee. A new study published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine this May 31, 2022 demonstrates that drinking between two and four cups of coffee a daysweetened or unsweetened, could reduce the risk of dying prematurely by an average of 30%.
This study, conducted by Chinese researchers from the Southern Medical University from Guangzhou in China, involved 171,616 Britons, aged 55 on average and in good health at the start of the study. The participants completed a questionnaire five times during a period between 2009 and 2012. These questionnaires allowed the researchers to calculate the participants’ daily coffee consumption, and also to find out whether they used sugar or sweeteners.
Three quarters of the participants were coffee consumers, and half of them drank it unsweetened. One in six participants added sugar to their coffee and one in 20 consumed it with sweeteners. By the end of the study, 3,177 participants had died, the majority of cancer or heart disease.
29% lower risk of premature death for coffee drinkers
According to the results, unsweetened coffee drinkers had 29% lower risk of premature death compared to nondrinkers, and those who added sugar had 31% less risk than nondrinkers. On average, they added a teaspoon of sugar, according to the researchers. Beyond that, sugar consumption can have adverse health effects. Similar results were found for instant, ground and decaffeinated coffee.
The researchers also found a U-shaped association between coffee consumption and its protective effect, with the ideal consumption being between two and four cups of coffee per day. From six cups a day, the risk of premature death was likely to increase.
Watch out for sweeteners
Those consuming their coffee with sweeteners could not be analyzed, but these chemical substitutes for sugar would promote the appearance of cancers. “Consumption of artificially sweetened coffee was much lower than that of unsweetened and unsweetened coffee, decreasing the power to detect any association“, said Dr. Chen Mao, lead author of the study. In March 2022, a study published in the journal Plos Medicine had confirmed theassociation between consumption of sweeteners and higher risk of cancer.
If the results do not take into account a large dose of sugar in coffee, it is not necessarily a drink harmful to health. “So drink up – but it would be wise to avoid too many caramel macchiatos while other proofs are brewing“, wrote Dr. Chrisitna Wee, associate editor of the journal.
Source :
- Association of sugar-sweetened, artificially sweetened, and unsweetened coffee consumption with all-cause and cause-specific mortality, Annals of Internal MedicineMay 31, 2022
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