Drinking Coffee Could Help You Live Longer

Updated Sep 24, 2021

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I love coffee in all its forms – espresso, cappuccino, café au lait, coffee ice cream, coffee candy, coffee cake – you name it! My love affair with coffee began way back when I was in middle school when I spent the weekend at a friend’s cottage.  Sunday morning, her parents offered me a cup of coffee with brunch. I was thrilled. I loved the taste and drinking coffee made me feel very grown up and worldly. 

I came home and proudly announced “I drink coffee now,” and my parents, who could be very strict about some things, were totally fine with it and included me in their morning coffee ritual thereafter. (I had a strict curfew and had to get straight A’s but was allowed to wear make-up and drink coffee. What can I say? We’re French and it was the seventies.)

So, in light of my ongoing love affair with coffee, I was thrilled to find out that my coffee habit could actually help me live longer. In the 70s, big coffee drinkers also had a tendency to be big smokers, and so coffee drinking got a bad rap because it was hard to separate those two habits from each other.

According to news.gallup.com, in the US, self-reported adult smoking peaked in 1954 at 45%, and remained at 40% or more through the early 1970s, but has since gradually declined. The average rate of smoking across the decades fell from 40% in the 1970s to 32% in the 1980s, 26% in the 1990s, and 24% in the 2000s. And at last count, the CDC estimated that smoking in the US declined from 20.9% in 2005 to 13.7% in 2018.

And as millions of people worldwide quit smoking, coffee’s reputation began to change. 

Since then, a number of studies have been done on the long-term effects of coffee drinking, and all have had a very positive view of this guilty or, as it turns out, not so guilty pleasure. 

A 2018 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine that included about a half-million people in England, Scotland and Wales, aged 38 to 72, found that those who drank two to three cups per day had about a 12 % lower risk of death compared to non-coffee drinkers. 

In 2019, 63% of American adults reported drinking coffee daily, while 71% reported drinking coffee in the past week and 79% in the past year. As for their neighbors to the north, according to the Coffee Association of Canada, 2/3 of Canadians enjoy at least one cup a day with the average at 3.2 cups/day. Coffee is consumed by adults (ages 18-79) more than any other beverage – even tap water!

In fact, coffee is one of the most commonly consumed beverages worldwide. Studies have reported coffee drinkers are less likely to suffer of chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and Parkinson, and certain cancers including liver, colorectal, and endometrialcancer. A daily coffee habit is also linked to a lower risk of stroke and could even boost longevity. These findings played such a major role in the 2015 US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee report, that it concluded that moderate coffee consumption of up to 5 eight-ounce cups per day can be a part of a healthy diet. Five cups!

When you treat yourself to a cup of coffee, you’re not only getting caffeine but many other beneficial compounds, including powerful antioxidants, some magnesium, potassium, and B vitamins. Problem is, too much caffeine can make you jittery, interfere with sleep, trigger migraines, and cause digestive problems. 

So, what’s the workaround for the sleepless set? First off keep your caffeinated coffee consumption to before noon. The earlier in the day, the better. If you can, get up about 10-15 minutes earlier than you normally would and treat yourself to a great cup of joe (or two) and take the time to simply enjoy it.  

Also, take it easy on the cream and sugar. If you dress your coffee up with too much of that stuff, you risk negating the health benefits.  So rather than drown your coffee to make it palatable, opt for really great, high quality, coffee. My current favorite brand is Nespresso.

• Nespresso machines are easy to operate. You simply stick a capsule in and push a few buttons to make a perfect cup of coffee every time
• A Nespresso machine is low maintenance. You don’t need to grind any beans or clean out the ground beans like you do with fancy traditional machines
• Depending on the model, you get a perfect crema (the creamy foamy liquid on top) every time
• A Nespresso machine can make other coffee drinks as well, including straight up coffee, cappuccinos, and lattes
• And, best of all, Nespresso pods are recyclable.

Nespresso originally released 16 different types of coffee capsules to use with their machines and they’re constantly coming up with new flavours and special limited edition pods many of which are also available in decaf form with is great news for insomniacs, because turns out even those of us who are highly affected by caffeine, can benefit from drinking decaf. One cup of brewed decaf coffee provides 2.4% of the recommended daily intake of magnesium, 4.8% of potassium, and 2.5% of niacin, or vitamin B3. That may not seem like much but it adds up if you drink two to three cups a day. Decaf is also the perfect solution for those who get heartburn or acid reflux from drinking coffee. Drinking decaf coffee has been shown to cause significantly less acid reflux and heartburn than regular coffee.

Caffeine tolerance is different for everyone. While one person can drink coffee all day long and still sleep soundly, others have to limit their coffee consumption to one cup a day. Generally speaking, most adult should try to limit their caffeine consumption to about 400 mg a day. That’s roughly four cups of coffee a day. Personally, I switch to decaf after my second cup of coffee of the day. 

The bottom line is that coffee is one of the healthiest drinks around. It’s loaded with antioxidants and can reduce the risk of many serious diseases. And for those who react badly to caffeine, decaf is an excellent alternative. It has most of the benefits without any of the side effects.