Coffee is a popular beverage worldwide. It contains some nutrients as well as caffeine. Because coffee is so popular, consumers and researchers alike have a vested interest in understanding the drink’s impact on health and well-being.
A recent narrative review found that it is safe for most people to consume between one and four cups of coffee daily, which amounts to a maximum of 400 mg of caffeine daily.
Coffee drinkers may have a lower risk of specific health problems, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. Consuming coffee is also associated with a decreased risk for certain types of cancers and reduced mortality risk. But how people drink their coffee make a difference? That’s what researchers in the current study sought to uncover.
Coffee and mortality risk
In this study, researchers sought to determine if the lower mortality risk associated with coffee use is still applied with the addition of artificial sweeteners or sugar to the coffee. They noted that earlier studies had found a decreased mortality risk associated with drinking coffee. However, “these studies did not distinguish between coffee consumed with sugar or artificial sweeteners and coffee consumed without.”
The study included over 170,000 participants, and researchers followed up with participants over an average of 7 years. Participants were eligible for the study if they did not have cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cancer at baseline.
Researchers got a baseline assessment of participants’ coffee consumption, noting if they drank sugar-sweetened, artificially sweetened, or unsweetened coffee. Then they examined the association of coffee consumption with all-cause mortality and mortality from cancer and cardiovascular disease.
The authors accounted for lifestyle, clinical, and sociodemographic factors in the analysis. They found that more than half of coffee drinkers in the study drank unsweetened coffee. Typically, those who added sugar added less than 1.5 teaspoons of sugar.
The study found that moderate coffee consumption, with or without sugar, was associated with a decreased mortality risk. However, the results regarding mortality risk and artificial sweeteners were inconsistent.
Christina Wee, MD, MPH and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, published an editorial on the study. Dr. Wee noted a few of the study’s highlights:
“The observational study, while not conclusive, found that moderate coffee consumption – about 1.5 to 3.5 cups a day – even with added sugar, likely was not harmful for most people and appeared to be associated with a 30% reduction in mortality risk. These findings suggest that people who drink coffee can continue to do so with no cause for worry, which is good news for a large portion of the population.”
