Individuals who regularly drink coffee are more likely to live longer than those who do not frequently drink the hot beverage, academics have said.
Research from the European Society of Cardiology has reported that drinking two to three cups of coffee per day can also combat the development of heart disease.
Senior author Professor Peter Kistler said: “In this large, observational study, ground, instant and decaffeinated coffee were associated with equivalent reductions in the incidence of cardiovascular disease and death from cardiovascular disease or any cause.
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“The results suggest that mild to moderate intake of ground, instant and decaffeinated coffee should be considered part of a healthy lifestyle.”
During the experiment, the team of scientists examined the health of more than 449,000 middle-aged adults, all of whom had no previous history of heart disease and incident arrhythmias.
Each participant filled in a survey to outline their daily coffee consumption and the type of coffee they usually drink, such as ground, instant or decaffeinated.
Most of the participants drank instant coffee, while 22.4% avoided drinking coffee altogether, the study has reported.
The researchers found that the participants who drank everyday increased their lifespan by up to 27%.
In addition, they detected that the coffee drinkers were up to 20% less likely to develop heart disease compared to non-coffee drinkers.
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The findings also show that instant and ground coffee drinkers were unlikely to develop atrial fibrillation, whereas decaffeinated coffee drinkers were at risk of developing this heart complication.
“Caffeine is the most well-known constituent in coffee, but the beverage contains more than 100 biologically active components,” said Professor Kistler.
He added: “It is likely that non-caffeinated compounds were responsible for the positive relationships observed between coffee drinking, cardiovascular disease and survival.
“Our findings indicate that drinking modest amounts of coffee of all types should not be discouraged but can be enjoyed as a heart healthy behaviour.”
Read the study in full in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
