Drinking coffee is good for the heart... but only if it's "black"

coffee is good for the heart

 Drinking coffee is good for the heart... but only if it's "black"

A new study has shown that drinking a cup of black coffee daily has health benefits that may even protect against heart disease and death, according to the medical website "Health."

The researchers found that people who drank one or two cups of coffee daily had a 14 percent lower risk of death compared to those who didn't drink it. However, this only applied to those who drank their coffee black, or with small amounts of cream, milk, or sweeteners.

"If we add a lot of sugars or saturated fats to our diet, it increases our overall calorie intake, which may also be associated with negative health outcomes," said Dr. Fangfang Zhang, a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University and lead author of the study.

In a study published last May in the Journal of Nutrition, Zhang and her colleagues followed more than 46,000 American adults for about 10 years. The goal was to determine whether the risk of death was linked to the participants' coffee-drinking habits.

Death Risk Reduced

After tracking the participants' health, the research team found that drinking one cup of coffee per day was associated with a 16 percent lower risk of all-cause mortality, while drinking two or three cups of coffee per day was associated with a 17 percent lower risk of all-cause mortality. Coffee drinkers also had a 29 to 33 percent lower risk of death from heart disease.

Specifically, when examining coffee additives, the researchers found that, compared to non-coffee drinkers, participants' overall risk of death was 14 percent lower if they drank their coffee black or with a low-sugar, low-saturated-fat version. No increased mortality rate was observed in those who consumed their coffee with a large amount of sugar or with a large dose of milk or cream.

Adding more sugar or saturated fat to your coffee doesn't necessarily cancel out its health benefits, but excessive consumption of sugar and saturated fat in general is associated with poor cardiovascular health and higher mortality rates.