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Wellington baristas welcome research showing drinking coffee is linked to longer life

The UK study found coffee drinkers had a slightly lower risk of early death, than those who abstained

Wellington barista Clarke Gardiner is welcoming evidence from a major UK study linking coffee consumption with a lower risk of premature death.

He said the findings published in the American Medical Association’s journal JAMA Intern Med will be useful for passing on to customers that may feel concerned over their coffee intake levels.

“A lot of people start drinking tea because they know all the negative stuff associated with coffee and they come in and they’re like, ‘Oh, I’ve drunk too much coffee already today,’ and you can now say to them that actually it’s beneficial to health,” he said.

Researchers Erikka Loftfield, Marilyn C. Cornelis and Neil Caporaso used data collected over a decade from around half a million British volunteers.

They found non-coffee drinkers were more likely to have died than those that drunk coffee.

Enigma Cafe staff member Clarke Gardiner said coffee for him was “the essence of energy to wake up in the morning,” drinking multiple coffees every day at work – including at night time.

“Advertising towards this now could be very good… I just know that it has a bad rap,” Mr Gardiner said.

The study found it didn’t matter how the coffee was drunk, with espresso style, instant and even decaffeinated coffee having the effect.

Researchers say this suggests caffeine wasn’t responsible, but as the study was observational more research is required to determine what is behind the benefit.

Mr Gardiner said determining the component in coffee that is responsible would be of further use for his communications with customers.

“It would be good to tell them there’s something in the beans that are beneficial for their health,” he said.

Alice Lichenstein, a Tufts University nutrition researcher not linked to the study agrees, saying coffee has had negative health connotations which partially come from early literature suggesting coffee is not healthy for people.

“We seem to always be looking for something that’s wrong with coffee or bad with coffee.

“These investigators looked at a very large sample size and what they concluded was actually the coffee was associated with better health outcomes,” she said.

The difference was around eight per cent to 16 per cent for coffee drinkers being less likely to die, with how many cups were consumed per day having little variation on the life boosting benefit.

Ms Lichenstein said the results support previous research that say coffee can be part of a healthy diet, but are not a reason for those who don’t drink coffee to start.

“I’d say the recommendations really don’t change all that much… I don’t think we do know the number for what is the best number of servings.

“But we know that within normal limits – as with something like fruit and vegetables – that if you enjoy it you might as well do so,” she said.

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