Rabat – A recent study published in the Annals of Internet Medicine found that moderate consumption of coffee – whether sweetened or unsweetened – is associated with a lower risk of death.
People who drank 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee per day were 30% less likely to die during the study period than those who did not drink coffee at all. Adding sweetener to the coffee did not mitigate the benefit, the study shows.
The study period lasted around seven years and included a total of 171,616 participants aged between 37 and 73 without any history of heart disease or cancer.
More than 3,177 deaths were recorded during the study period, including 1,725 cancer deaths and 628 cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths.
The study found that participants who drank sugar-free coffee were 16 to 21% less likely to die, with those drinking an average of 3 cups a day having the lowest risk of mortality compared with non-coffee drinkers.
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Christine Wee, the deputy editor or Annals of Intern Medicine told Good Morning America that “drinking coffee was associated with a lower risk of dying, whether or not you added sugar.”
The New York Times reported that since the study was observational, the results do not prove that drinking coffee lowers death risk, adding that other factors like the participants’ lifestyle, including diet and exercise, could contribute to the lower mortality rates.
But the Annals of Internet Medicine study is not the first to suggest that drinking coffee is beneficial to one’s health and lowers death risk.
Last year, a team of researchers found that drinking coffee was associated with a decreased risk of chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers.
Even though Morocco is known worldwide for its mint tea, coffee is also widely consumed by locals in the country.
