CNN – Want to reach older age with a sharp mind and healthy body? Part of the answer may be in your coffee cup, according to new research.
“Women who drank one to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day in their 50s were more likely to reach older age free from major chronic diseases and with good cognitive, physical, and mental health,” said lead study author Dr. Sara Mahdavi, adjunct professor in the faculty of medicine and department of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto.
Researchers analyzed dietary data from more than 47,000 women who were part of the Nurses’ Health Study, according to the research released Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Orlando.
The study was presented as an abstract, but a more in-depth manuscript of the investigation will be submitted for peer review in the coming months, Mahdavi said.
The women were surveyed in middle age and followed for 30 years to understand their rates of death and disease.
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“In this study, we found that moderate caffeinated coffee consumption during midlife was associated with a higher likelihood of healthy aging 30 years later,” Mahdavi said.
It’s not just any caffeinated drink
The effects were found in caffeinated coffee in particular, according to the research. The same link was not found for tea or decaffeinated coffee — and drinking more cola or other caffeinated sodas was tied to a lower chance of healthy aging.
“This would imply that coffee in particular has health preserving or promoting effects,” said Dr. David Kao, Jacqueline Marie Schauble Leaffer Endowed Chair in Women’s Heart Disease and associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical School in an email.
“As with other studies, they also appear to have found that coffee has a particular benefit over other caffeinated drinks … ”
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