Starting your day with a cup of coffee could bring more health benefits than a few cups throughout the day, a new study has suggested.
Researchers monitoring long-term health, nutrition and lifestyle, found higher coffee intake was “significantly” associated with a lower risk of death, but only among people who drank coffee in the morning compared with those who drank coffee all day.
The findings indicate that it is not only about how much coffee you drink, but when you drink it, that is important.
Led by experts from Tulane University in Louisiana, US, more than 40,000 adults took part in the study and were tracked for almost a decade.
More than a third (36%) of those taking part in the study were deemed to be morning coffee drinkers, while around 14% were all-day coffee drinkers.
During the follow-up period, some 4,295 people who were taking part had died.
Taking into account various factors, researchers concluded that morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to have died compared with those who drank no coffee.
Separately, they were 31% less likely to have died from heart disease.
There was no reduction in risk for all-day coffee drinkers compared with those who did not drink any coffee.
Lead author, Dr Lu Qi, said: “Research so far suggests that drinking coffee doesn’t raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, and it seems to lower the risk of some chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes.
“This is the first study testing coffee drinking timing patterns and health outcomes.
“Our findings indicate that it’s not just whether you drink coffee or how much you drink, but the time of day when you drink coffee that’s important. We don’t typically give advice about timing in our dietary guidance, but perhaps we should be thinking about this in the future.”
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Dr Lu added that the findings fail to provide a reason why drinking coffee in the morning reduces the risk of death and cardiovascular disease, but said a possible explanation is drinking coffee in the afternoon may disrupt circadian rhythms and levels of hormones such as melatonin.
This, in turn, leads to changes in cardiovascular risk factors such as inflammation and blood pressure.
‘Likely to be healthy’
In a piece of linked research, Professor Thomas Luuscher, from the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals in London, said “many all-day drinkers suffer from sleep disturbances”.
He said overall, people “must accept” the “substantial evidence that coffee drinking, particularly in the morning hours, is likely to be healthy. Thus, drink your coffee, but do so in the morning”.
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Similar findings were observed among those who drank caffeinated coffee or decaffeinated coffee, either in the morning or throughout the day.
The researchers said that among coffee drinkers, participants with a morning-type pattern were more likely to consume tea and caffeinated soda but consume both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee – compared with those who drank coffee all day.
