I love coffee. I start the day with a huge, milky cappuccino – with caffeine – and then switch to decaf. I might have one or two more cappuccinos throughout the day. Wouldn’t it be nice for something so enjoyable to have a health benefit? The headlines on 11th July 2017 suggested that this might be the case. CNN announced “Drinking more coffee leads to a longer life, two studies say”. The BBC were a bit more cautious with “Coffee drinkers live longer – perhaps”.
In this note I’ll share the key attributes of the two studies and what they found. I’ll whiz through the possible absolute benefit, as opposed to the numbers featured in the media articles. I’ll then take a look at what the plausible mechanism might be, which will take us into the interesting territory of fruit, veg and five-a-day! You’ll also discover why the key part of any cappuccino is the cocoa powder on top and the (hopefully) accompanying very dark chocolate. Finally, I did one of the most interesting reviews I’ve ever done – how public health authorities present studies that support their advice vs. those that don’t. What an eye opener that was...!
