In a good news for all you coffee lovers out there, researchers at Ulster University in the UK have suggested drinking coffee in moderate amounts is not harmful to health, instead is little beneficial for adult coffee drinkers.
Several previous studies have established a link between regular coffee consumption and its negative effects on human health, with some correlating the caffeine consumption to certain types of cancer, including esophageal cancer as well as cancers of the pancreas, bladder, prostate or breast.
But recently World Health Organisation’s cancer agency, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), issued a report reclassifying the carcinogenic status of hot beverages including tea, coffee etc.
As per the report, in the absence of conclusive evidence to classify coffee as a carcinogen and on the bases of existing evidence, coffee’s status as a possible carcinogen is downgraded, however, very hot beverages probably cause cancer.
After a review of over 1,000 studies, the agency wrote in the report that drinking extremely hot coffee could be carcinogenic to humans.
“Studies in places such as China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey and South America, where tea or mate is drunk very hot (at about 70 degrees Celsius) found that the risk of oesophageal cancer increased with the temperature at which the beverage was drunk,” IARC said.
“It doesn’t matter what the liquid is. What matters is the temperature,” asserted epidemiologist Dana Loomis, who co-conducted the review.
Now to the delight of coffee drinkers, Ulster University researchers have claimed that drinking moderate amounts of coffee, which is defined as 3-4 cups per day, can be beneficial more than harmful for adults.
The researchers came up with the evidence after reviewing 1,277 studies (from 1970 till date) on coffee’s negative and positive effect on human health.
Based on the review, a list was compiled showing off the possible health benefits and risks of coffee intake on overall mortality, cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic health, gastrointestinal conditions, neurological disorders and other health conditions.
The review of the findings concluded that the probable benefits of moderate coffee drinking outweighed the risks in adult coffee drinkers for the majority of major health conditions considered, and can be mildly beneficial for adults.
Meanwhile, the research team has affirmed more study is needed to determine the definitive bad effects or benefit of coffee consumption as well as to explore how much coffee and which of its active ingredients could be attributed for these health benefits.
The review findings were reported in the journal Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety
