SPAIN
New research indicates caffeine may help you live longer so long as you don’t mind having a sweet tooth.
One study suggests the more coffee you drink, the more years you may add to your life. Another indicates that caffeine may dull your taste for sweets and therefore increase your desire for them. In the first study, nearly 20,000 people in Spain participated in a 10-year, observational project. Researchers concluded participants who consumed at least four cups of coffee per day had a 64% lower risk of death than those who never or infrequently drank coffee. If a person had two cups a day, they had a 22% lower risk of death.
Researchers said they tracked age, sex, and whether the participants normally ate a Mediterranean diet known for its health benefits. The observational study acknowledged other factors could affect life expectancy.
“We found an inverse association between drinking coffee and the risk of all-cause mortality, particularly in people aged 45 years and above. This may be due to a stronger protective association among older participants," says Dr. Adela Navarro, study co-author and a cardiologist at Hospital de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain.
In a second study, researchers concluded caffeine can dull your taste buds thus making sweets seem not so sweet. That lack of satisfaction can make you crave more.
Researchers created two groups of volunteers and gave one set a strong cup of coffee (200 mg of caffeine). The others drank decaf. Both groups were instructed to add sugar to their drinks and determine sweetness. Caffeinated drinkers said the coffee was less sweet compared to decaf drinkers."
When you drink caffeinated coffee, it will change how you perceive taste for however long that effect lasts,” senior study author Robin Dando said.