They discovered that men who drank the most coffee—an average of 855ml (about three and a half large cups) a day—were 12 per cent less likely to die of any cause during the 16-year follow-up than those who didn’t drink any coffee at all.
In men, the reduction in premature death seemed to be primarily driven by a sharp decline in the number of digestive-disease deaths, which includes liver-related causes. Guys who drank the most coffee were 59 per cent less likely to die of digestive disease over the follow-up than those who didn’t imbibe.
In the second study from the University of Southern California, researchers found that people who consumed one 350ml cup each day slashed their risk of dying early by 12 per cent over 16 years, while three cups reduced the risk by 18 per cent.
Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter from the University of Cambridge calculated that this meant a cup of coffee a day extended the average life of a man by three months.
“Pro-rata, that’s as if that cup of coffee puts, on average, around nine minutes on a man’s life … So perhaps we should relax and enjoy it,” he said.
We’ll sip to that.
