Pre-Lunch Coffee Drinkers Enjoy Lower Risk of Death, Analysis Finds (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0175849991
- News link: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/01/08/0825249/pre-lunch-coffee-drinkers-enjoy-lower-risk-of-death-analysis-finds
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/jan/08/coffee-drinkers-reap-health-boost-but-only-if-they-do-it-in-the-morning
> People who get their coffee hit in the morning reap benefits that are [1]not seen in those who have shots later in the day , according to the first major study into the health benefits of the drink at different times. Analysis of the coffee consumption of more than 40,000 adults found that morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to die of any cause and 31% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease during a 10-year follow-up period than those who went without. But the benefits to heart health appeared to vanish in people who drank coffee throughout the day, the researchers found, with medical records showing no significant reduction in mortality for all-day drinkers compared with those who avoided coffee. [...]
>
> The study suggests that a morning dose of coffee is better for the heart than an evening one, but it does not explain why. One possible explanation is that drinking coffee later in the day can disrupt circadian rhythms and levels of hormones such as melatonin. This in turn affects sleep, inflammation and blood pressure, all of which can harm heart health. In an [2]accompanying editorial , Prof Thomas Luscher, a consultant cardiologist at the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals in London, notes that many all-day drinkers sleep poorly, adding that coffee seems to suppress melatonin, a hormone that is important for inducing sleep in the brain. The effects are driven largely by caffeine, but coffee contains hundreds of other bioactive compounds that affect our physiology. The researchers say some substances in the blood that drive inflammation often peak in the morning and could be countered by anti-inflammatory compounds in a morning coffee. "This explanation applies to both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee," they write.
"Overall, we must accept the now substantial evidence that coffee drinking, particularly in the morning hours, is likely to be healthy," Luscher writes. "Thus, drink your coffee, but do so in the morning!"
The study has been [3]published in the European Heart Journal .
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/jan/08/coffee-drinkers-reap-health-boost-but-only-if-they-do-it-in-the-morning
[2] https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae823
[3] https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae871
Why not both. (Score:2)
I have one coffee in the morning and another in the afternoon. Will I die sooner or live forever?
Re: (Score:2)
> I have one coffee in the morning and another in the afternoon. Will I die sooner or live forever?
According to TFA, you will die sooner.
According to the study, people who drink coffee in the morning benefit, but those who drink coffee "throughout the day" do not.
Disclaimer: I am a tea drinker.
Re: (Score:1)
That is completely up of your girlfriend.
Or your wife.
Or both of them, if they find out about each other.
I would not worry. Just drink the coffee while it is still hot.
Re: (Score:3)
In my mind, the bigger question is - is life without coffee really life at all?
It's sort of like that question from the 1980s... if you knew you would live 5 years longer by always eating carob whenever you wanted chocolate - would you do it?
(note that my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek while I'm making this post... and I'm gonna go get some coffee in a minute)
Re: (Score:2)
No.
Re: (Score:3)
Regardless you'll be awake to find out
Re: Why not both. (Score:2)
Live forever. As a zombie.
Really shouldn't be that difficult (Score:4, Insightful)
People who drink coffee only in the morning tend to be morning people who need or want a lot of energy for ... the morning. Easiest explanation for that is something going to exercise (even simply walking the dog). Did they even try to control for that?
From the study: Fourth, although we had carefully adjusted for potential confounding, we could not exclude the possibility that the morning-type coffee drinking pattern is a marker for an overall healthy lifestyle, for example, morning-type coffee drinkers may be more willing to exercise and eat non-ultra-processed foods
It appears they did not. Supplementary data does not really say one way or the other. Would have been fairly simple to to add to the food / drink log they were already recording, but I suppose captain obvious slept in that day.
Re: (Score:2)
> I suppose captain obvious slept in that day
I see what you did there. :)
Re: (Score:1)
Morning is when I wake up and go to get a coffee.
Has nothing to do with the actually time of the day.
Walking the dog "in the morning" is actually an interesting point.
As "people like me" do sports in the afternoon, and not in the morning.
In the morning I want coffee, or tea - and most certainly not sports. Unless it is love making before we get out of bed, obviously.
Re: (Score:2)
If you are playing sports "in the afternoon", you're an outlier in this cohort. Most people are working in the afternoon. Working out is typically done before work, lunch, or after work (late evening).
Re: (Score:2)
> People who drink coffee only in the morning tend to be morning people who need or want a lot of energy for ... the morning
allow me being pedant: caffeine brings wakefulness, not energy. caffeine does increase mental and physical performance but that acts on pathways unrelated to "energy".
in general the "i need an energy fix for activity x" trope is just superstition, an adult body needs about 4gr of glucose in the bloodstream at any moment for whatever activity, and the body has several mechanisms to maintain that level of blood sugar at demand from several reserves, even after starving for days. the energy potential from food
Re: (Score:2)
Parent wasn't suggesting that it's coffee particularly, although it's worded as such. More that the set of people who drink coffee in the morning and the set of people who engage in some kind of morning physical activity (be it early gym visits, dog walking, early work hours, whatever) tend to overlap, and that this may be confounding the study.
I am NOT a morning person (Score:2)
So, I need the coffee to even function at a reasonably coherent level. So, it may be the other way around.
Drug pushers will say anything (Score:2)
To sell their products.
Sure, because I am stuck in line (Score:2)
And not on the roads driving.
"analysis" (Score:1)
I was using the words 'expert' and 'scientific studies' to detect masked corporate propaganda. I see they switched to 'analysis' now.
Why is coffee (eventually) bad for us then? (Score:1)
> Analysis of the coffee consumption of more than 40,000 adults found that morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to die of any cause and 31% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease..
If the benefits of coffee are in fact THIS profound, then I wonder why coffee is ever put on the verboten list by doctors.
Is it the coffee bean that is proving that beneficial, but the caffeine in it that’s causing doctors to question the benefits and recommend people avoid it? If so, are we going to see a boom in processing coffee that is more low-caffeine or caffeine-free?
Doctors may have many other more obvious reasons to tell someone to stop drinking coffee. But it seems like that advice becomes
Circadian rhythyms (Score:3)
I can have a cup of coffee and fall asleep in 30 min later. I have to drink a lot to get a jolt from it at this point.
I do same with espresso (Score:2)
I think that is a well known effect. The sleep you get after a shot of coffee is really good quality sleep too. If you do not fall asleep within that early period though, you will get the boost from it.
People that shake their beer cans b4 opening them. (Score:2)
live longer lives.
NOW DO MONSNTER ENERGY! (Score:3)
Now do the same study for Monster Energy drinks. Maybe weighted by amount. The 8oz, the 12oz, the 16oz and the 32oz. Which is the most beneficial in the morning, and does drinking one in the afternoon have a net negative or net positive. Come on, if we're gonna drug push, let's DRUG PUSH!
What about all day long coffee drinkers? (Score:2)
I can drink coffee any time and it does not impact my sleep. From early morning till late afternoon. Super caffeinated all day long.
What if you're a teapot? 418 (Score:2)
[1]What is you're a teapot? [mozilla.org]
It's Slashdot, the 418 reference had to be made.
[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/418
Is it caffeine or coffee? (Score:1)
I would like to know whether my decaf has any health benefits.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
What evidence do you feel was excluded from or not considered by this study (i.e., points to confirmation bias)?
Confirmation bias is when you buy a new Honda Ridgeline, and suddenly you see Honda Ridgelines everywhere. But if you actually count them before and after your purchase, and find that the number afterwards is indeed statistically higher, that's no longer confirmation bias.
Re: (Score:3)
Can confirm. I bought a Subaru Outback, and now they're everywhere.
Re: (Score:2)
Confirmatin bias by someone who is already awake and posting at 5:36AM. Seems logical.
Re: (Score:2)
> Confirmation bias is confirmed through confirmation of the confirmed point by confirming it is confirmed. News at 11.
NetCraft confirms!