A new study indicates that consuming large amounts of coffee daily might not be as detrimental to your health as previously thought.
Like many others, I enjoy a single cup of coffee each morning, either during my commute or with breakfast.
My perfect cup consists of two scoops of instant coffee, a third of a mug filled with semi-skimmed milk, and topped up with boiling water, all stirred together.
While this suits me, I know people who drink coffee throughout the day and even in the evening, which seems odd to me. But to each their own.
We’ve all likely wondered about the health implications of our daily coffee habit.
Research led by Professor Steffen Petersen and his team at Queen Mary University in London has revealed that drinking over 20 cups of coffee a day isn’t as harmful as one might think, particularly regarding arterial stiffness.
They discovered there’s a maximum amount of coffee you can consume daily without negatively affecting your arteries. But why the focus on arteries?
Arteries transport nutrient and oxygen-rich blood from your heart throughout your body.
If arteries stiffen, there’s a higher risk of heart attacks or strokes as it becomes harder to circulate blood.
The study involved 8,412 participants who underwent MRI scans and infrared pulse wave tests, debunking previous research that suggested coffee stiffens arteries. Researchers believe earlier findings were due to smaller sample sizes.
Participants were categorized into three groups: those drinking less than a cup a day, those drinking one to three cups daily, and those consuming more than three cups.
Remarkably, some individuals drank over 25 cups daily but were excluded from the study. However, their arterial stiffness was no different compared to those drinking less than a cup a day.
The research noted that heavy coffee drinkers were often men who also smoked and consumed alcohol regularly.
Professor Metin Avkiran, an associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation, commented via the UK-based charity: “Understanding the impact that coffee has on our heart and circulatory system is something that researchers and the media have had brewing for some time.
“There are several conflicting studies saying different things about coffee, and it can be difficult to filter what we should believe and what we shouldn’t.
“This research will hopefully put some of the media reports in perspective, as it rules out one of the potential detrimental effects of coffee on our arteries.”