Stop drinking coffee wrong: Here’s the healthiest time for caffeine
Key Takeaways
Industry Insights
“It’s not just whether you drink coffee or how much you drink, but [also] the time of day when you drink coffee, that’s important.” –Lu Qi, MD
“I was surprised to see that there was an association between lower risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease-specific mortality found in morning coffee drinkers as compared with non-coffee drink[ers]. I wouldn’t have thought it would make a difference.” –Dana Hunnes, PhD
Those who drink coffee in the morning have a lower risk of dying due to cardiovascular disease, as well as lower overall mortality risk, when compared with those who drink coffee throughout the day.[]
Study and findings
Research published in the European Heart Journal found that morning coffee drinkers benefited from lower mortality risks regardless of whether they drank two to three cups, or more than three cups, of coffee each morning.
“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,” Lu Qi, MD, PhD, lead author of the study and tHCA Regents Distinguished Chair and Professor at the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans, said in a press statement.[]
“This study doesn’t tell us why drinking coffee in the morning reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. A possible explanation is that consuming coffee in the afternoon or evening 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,” Lu Qi, lead author of the study, said in a press statement.[]
Timing of coffee matters
The researchers found that, compared with those who did not drink coffee at all, morning coffee drinkers were 31% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease and 16% less likely to die from any cause.
The authors found that there was no reduction in risk for all-day coffee drinkers compared to non-coffee drinkers.
Surprising findings
Experts say that the findings of the study are novel.
“I was surprised to see that there was an association between lower risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease-specific mortality found in morning coffee drinkers as compared with non-coffee drink[ers]. I wouldn’t have thought it would make a difference,” Dana Hunnes, PhD, a senior dietician supervisor at RR-UCLA Medical Center and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA, tells MDLinx.
“This study doesn’t really elucidate on the causal mechanisms of why these associations might exist, and [this] is definitely worth finding out more about in future studies.”
Dr. Hunnes says that coffee can be a healthy addition to the diet, as long as there aren’t too many additions.