You may drink coffee for the energy boost that helps you jump-start your day. But there’s another potential benefit you might not see right away: According to a new study analysis, coffee is associated with healthy aging.
Investigators examined roughly three decades of data on more than 47,000 women taking part in the Nurses’ Health Study, who provided detailed dietary information every few years. By the end of the study period, about 3,700 women had reached their seventies and met researchers’ definition of healthy aging: They were free of many common chronic diseases and had good mental and cognitive health.
These so-called “healthy agers” typically consumed about 315 milligrams (mg) of caffeine a day when they were middle-aged. They got more than 80 percent of their caffeine from fully caffeinated coffee — roughly a cup and a half of the large coffees many people drink today — and not from other sources like cola or tea.
Among these healthy agers, each extra cup of coffee per day was tied to a 2 to 5 percent higher chance of being free of disease and disability later in life, up to about 2.5 cups.
Results Should Be Reassuring to Coffee Drinkers
While these findings aren’t a prescription to start drinking coffee if you never acquired a taste for it, they should be reassuring if you are a regular coffee drinker, says lead study author Sara Mahdavi, PhD, RD, a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston and an adjunct professor at University of Toronto.
“For those who already drink coffee, particularly caffeinated coffee, these results suggest it does not need to be viewed as a bad habit,” Dr. Mahdavi says. “In fact, moderate coffee intake, when consumed without high amounts of sugar or cream, was associated with a greater likelihood of aging free from major chronic disease, cognitive or physical limitations, and mental health concerns.”
“The sweet spot may be around two cups of caffeinated coffee a day with nothing or very little added in terms of sugar, sweetener, or dairy,” says Glen Finney, MD, a neurology professor at the Geisinger College of Health Sciences and director of the Geisinger Memory and Cognition Program in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania, who wasn’t involved in the new study.
The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove that specific drinks directly cause healthy aging. The preliminary findings haven’t been published or reviewed by independent medical experts.
What About Decaf and Tea?
Decaf or tea weren’t associated with healthy aging in the study.
As far as decaf goes, it’s possible that the decaffeination process removes nutrients in coffee that contribute to healthy aging, says Dr. Finney.
As for tea, “In the past it has shown in some studies health benefits similar to coffee so I was surprised not to see a benefit in this study,” he says.
It’s possible that there were too few decaf and tea drinkers in the study to detect clear health effects of these beverages, since caffeinated coffee was far more commonly consumed by the participants, Mahdavi says. It’s also possible that some people gave up coffee for medical reasons, shifting unhealthy agers into the ranks of tea or decaf drinkers, Mahdavi adds.
Regular coffee also might look better than other beverages in the study because it has more caffeine — about 100 mg per cup — compared with only about 50 mg in black tea and 30 mg in green tea, says Joy Dubost, PhD, RD, owner of NJOY Health and Nutrition and an associate professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa. But this doesn’t mean tea is bad for you.
“Tea has been shown in numerous published studies to provide health benefits, particularly in supporting heart health by reducing blood pressure and supporting healthy blood flow,” says Dr. Dubost, who wasn’t involved in the new study.
Soda Lowers Your Risk of Aging Well
Soda appeared detrimental to healthy aging in the study, with each extra daily glass of cola tied to a 20 percent to 26 percent lower likelihood of healthy aging.
Unlike tea, cola lacks clear benefits, says Yu Chen, PhD, MPH, a professor of population health at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine.
“Soda may negatively impact healthy aging for several reasons, such as its high sugar content,” says Dr. Chen, who wasn’t involved in the new study. “Some studies have also linked artificial sweeteners to disrupted appetite regulation and a higher risk of stroke, cardiovascular disease, and dementia.”
Many Factors Contribute to Healthy Aging
While the preliminary study findings are heartening to coffee drinkers, experts note that coffee is not a magic bullet.
“Other factors like better diet quality, more physical activity, and not smoking remain critical to aging well,” Mahdavi says.