Researchers from Guangzhou's Southern Medical University have some positive news for coffee drinkers.
During a seven-year follow-up phase, they discovered that persons who drank the popular beverage were less likely to die. The benefit was largest in persons who drank moderate amounts of coffee, roughly 1.5 to 3.5 cups per day. Coffee, both sweetened and unsweetened, has been related to a reduced risk of death. People who drank sweetened coffee, on the other hand, performed slightly better than those who did not.
Sweetened coffee drinkers were 31 percent less likely to die, whereas unsweetened coffee drinkers were 21 percent less likely to die. Previous research on the health advantages of coffee, on the other hand, did not look into whether the sweetener used in the coffee had any effect on health outcomes. The study was designed as a prospective cohort study, which meant that participants were divided into groups that were identical in every manner except how they drank their coffee. They would then monitor their progress over time to see how they fared.
They got their information from the UK Biobank.
About half a million people have volunteered to share their medical and genetic information with researchers through this database. A total of 171,616 participants were enrolled in the trial who did not have cardiovascular disease or cancer at the start. The participants in the study were on average 55.6 years old. People were asked to report how much coffee they drank and whether they used sugar, artificial sweeteners, or no sweetener at all.
“Adults who drank sugar-sweetened coffee added only one teaspoon of sugar on average,” said Liu.
The researchers calculated the number of people who died from all causes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. The researchers discovered a U-shaped relationship between the amount of coffee consumed and the chance of mortality after studying the data. Those who consumed somewhat did better than those who consumed more or less. The authors of the study did point out, however, that the data is over ten years old. It also comes from a country where tea is a major beverage, which could have influenced the outcome. They also mentioned that the participants in the study consumed far less sugar than is commonly found in coffee shop drinks. This makes comparisons between study participants and others who obtain their coffee from places like Starbucks problematic.
A licenced dietitian, Mary Mosquera Cochran, stated that moderate coffee use, which she characterised as two to five cups per day, has previously been linked to a variety of health benefits. Reduced risks of stroke, type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, colon cancer, liver cancer, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and, according to current studies, acute kidney injury. According to Cochran, coffee drinking appears to be connected to a longer lifetime, based on Liu’s team’s research and other studies. She emphasised that while it is impossible to say for definite that one causes the other, this study does support that theory.
Cochran also found it intriguing that modest sugar consumption with coffee (1.5 to 3.5 teaspoons per day) had no negative effects on health. She was also intrigued by the inconclusive results obtained with artificial sweeteners.
Parvathy Sukumaran 
