Coffee beans Traditionally a nation of tea-drinkers, we Brits have embraced the new coffee culture – even with the economic downturn, coffee sales keep on growing and there are now around 3,500 cafés in the UK.
But although people enjoy its flavour and wakening effects, most people are aware that drinking too much might not be good for you.
Caffeine is a stimulant that causes blood vessels to dilate and heart rate to increase. But a new study from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden has found that, for stroke at least, coffee drinking appears to be beneficial.
The researchers there followed nearly 35,000 women aged between 49 and 83 for an average of around 10 years.
They asked the women how much coffee they drank and put them in four different groups: those who drank less than one cup each day, those who had one or two cups each day, three or four, or five or more. Taking into account whether or not the women smoked, their body mass index, as well as other relevant health issues (such as diabetes, hypertension), the researchers then compared the coffee data to whether the women suffered a stroke. They found that those who drank more than a cup a day were between 22% and 25% less likely to have suffered a stroke than those who had less than one cup a day.
Although this sounds like great news for coffee-drinkers, the researchers say more research is needed to discover why coffee might have such a beneficial effect.
One of the problems with this study was that it relied on self-reported intake of coffee – the study participants may have over or under-estimated their coffee intake.
Until more studies are done, it’s best to stick to the old adage ‘moderation in everything.’