A cup or two of coffee may do us good—but it also depends on when you drink it.
Drinking your brew in the morning seems to be the best time of the day to reap the health benefits that seem to disappear if you drink coffee in the afternoon or evening.
Morning coffee drinkers were 31 percent less likely to have died from heart disease than a non-coffee drinker, and they also had a 16 percent lower risk of dying from any health problem, say researchers from Tulane University in New Orleans.
In a study of 40,725 people, the researchers concluded that the morning coffee drinkers were healthier than those who drank it all day or didn’t drink it at all. Around 36 percent of the participants were morning coffee drinkers, and 14 percent drank it all day.
During the 10 years of the study, 4,295 of the participants died, including 1,268 from heart disease and 934 from cancer.
But far fewer in the morning-coffee group had died, and the most significant factor was the time of day they drank, and having another cup or two also helped reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, just as long as they consumed the drinks in the morning.
Although plenty of studies have shown the health benefits of drinking coffee, none had looked at the best time of day to drink it. The researchers aren’t sure why it is that the morning cup is so important but drinking coffee later in the day could disrupt our circadian rhythms and hormone levels such as melatonin that aid sleep. “This, in turn, leads to changes in cardiovascular risk factors such as inflammation and blood pressure,” said Lu Qi, one of the researchers.
Stay Healthy,
Janice