Harvard University Finds Coffee Is Proven to Help You Live Longer

Love Coffee? Good, Coffee Is Proven To Help You Live Longer

One of the reasons I fixate on coffee so much in my writing isn’t because I’m some java fiend. Far from it actually, as I’m not a huge coffee lover.

No, the reason I write about it with some amount of frequency is because everyone else loves it.

It’s estimated the average American spends about $1,200 dollars a year on coffee…and since it’s by far our most popular and most easily accessible “legal drug”, I’m inclined to tell you the good and the bad about one of America’s favorite beverages.

So that’s why I’m happy to tell you about coffee’s ability to positively affect how long you live and why coffee is proven to help you live longer.

How Harvard University Found Coffee Is Proven To Help You Live Longer

First things first, if you want to read about other convincing studies suggesting coffee is incredible for your health then read these articles I wrote on coffee (article 1, article 2)

Overwhelmingly, research has supported coffee consumption being great for your health.

This recent study stands on the shoulders of those studies and reports the incredible, life-extending benefits of coffee.

According to a group of researchers at Harvard University, downing more than a few cups of joe is one of the closest things to finding the proverbial fountain of youth.

Ok, they didn’t go quite that far.

In their study, titled, ‘Association of Coffee Consumption with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality in Three Large Prospective Cohorts’, which was published in this month’s “Circulation“, the more you drink the longer you live.

In the study, they demonstrated people who drank one to two cups of coffee per day (either regular or decaf) had a lower risk of dying early and also weren’t as likely to develop poor cardiovascular health, blood sugar fluctuations, and poor neurological health.

Not bad for a drink that also gives you one of the best defenses against early mornings and late nights.

What I think is one of the most intriguing parts of the study was how their observations led them to discover it’s actually better for you to drink more.  This is flying in the face of some research observing the opposite.

The researchers examined data of some 200,000 people over three decades, sourcing three other studies, and found significantly lower death rates among non-smokers who consumed one to five cups of coffee a day.

According to one of the authors, Ming Ding, a doctoral student in Harvard’s Department of Nutrition, something floating in that cup of java helps the body resist disease.

“Bioactive compounds in coffee reduce insulin resistance and systematic inflammation,” he said in a press release. “That could explain some of our findings. However, more studies are needed to investigate the biological mechanisms producing these effects.”

Senior author Frank Hu, Harvard’s professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology, goes even further.

“These data support the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Report that concluded that ‘moderate coffee consumption can be incorporated into a healthy dietary pattern.’”

One of the things the study didn’t really dive deep into was exactly how the coffee was prepared and consumed.

I’ve noted many times over in my writing that when a study like this about coffee comes out there are going to be aggravating and mitigating factors in the overall effectiveness of the substance to positively affect health.

Meaning, if you load up the coffee with sugar, cream, artificial sweeteners and other ingredients, you’re probably reducing the positive effect coffee has on your health.

Again, it isn’t clear whether the researchers took these factors into account in their study, but I can assure you that ,because we know about the harmful effects of these substances, it should go without saying that coffee by itself is the healthiest option.

The bottom line here is if you love coffee (and I know many of you do) then get to drinking!

Harvard says it’ll help you live longer.