Coffee’s sweet spot: Scientists determine how many cups you should drink per day for maximum health benefits
Drinking three cups of coffee a day not only gives you an energy boost, it can also be a good way to keep your heart healthy, scientists have discovered.
Although drinking too much caffeine can keep you awake at night, in moderate amounts it can reduce your risk of cardiometabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke.
Researchers in China revealed that drinking about 200 to 300 mg of caffeine per day – the equivalent of three cups of coffee – was associated with a lower risk of new cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CM), or at least two cardiometabolic diseases.
In fact, the scientists found that those who drink this amount of daily caffeine see their risk reduced by almost half, compared to those who drink less than one cup of coffee per day.
In moderate amounts, coffee can lower the risk of cardiometabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke
The studypublished in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, came to this conclusion based on data from the UK Biobank.
The Biobank recruited over half a million people aged 37-73 from Britain between 2006 and 2010 and collected a wealth of data.
From these figures, researchers excluded people who had unclear information about how much tea, coffee or caffeine they had.
Participants’ cardiovascular disease outcomes were identified from self-reported medical conditions, primary care data, linked hospital data and death records linked to the UK Biobank.
The sweet spot was found to be between 200mg and 300mg of caffeine per day, with one mug of instant coffee containing around 100mg, a cup of tea around 47mg, while energy drinks can contain 80mg of caffeine in a small 250ml can.
Although anyone who drank coffee and caffeine had a lower risk of developing new heart and metabolic diseases, those who reported drinking about three cups a day had the lowest risk, the study found.
The sweet spot turned out to be between 200 mg and 300 mg of caffeine per day. For context, one mug of instant coffee contains about 100 mg, a cup of tea about 47 mg, while energy drinks can contain 80 mg of caffeine in a small 250 ml can.
“The findings highlight that promoting moderate amounts of coffee or caffeine intake as a dietary habit for healthy people could have far-reaching benefits for the prevention of CM,” said the study’s lead author, Chaofu Ke, from the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health at Suzhou Medical College of Soochow University in Suzhou, China.
However, the study also found that people who drank more coffee were older, male, and more likely to exercise.
They also tended to eat less processed meat, but fewer vegetables.
The study authors adjusted these and several other factors in their analysis, including alcohol intake, BMI and kidney function, to try to separate the effects of co-creating factors.
To find out why three cups of coffee is the perfect amount, the study authors also looked at blood samples from 168 participants and at metabolites: small molecules produced when the body breaks down food.
Researchers found that in 80 of the participants who drank more coffee, their metabolites differed significantly from those who drank much less.
Some of these metabolites are associated with better health and others with worse health, said Dr. Francis Perry Wilson of the Yale School of Medicine. Medscape.
Analyzing the results, he explained that it shows that the intake of coffee, tea or caffeine has a major impact on the metabolites of very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) – a type of bad cholesterol.
Caffeine appears to lower it, which is good for our health, as higher levels can lead to heart disease, suggesting coffee may help protect us against it.
