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Source URL: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201028-the-benefits-of-coffee-is-coffee-good-for-health

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Why coffee could be good for your health

Why coffee could be good for your health

In the past, coffee was associatedkojarzony with increased health risks. But research from the last decade finds that drinking coffee may actually benefitkorzystać your health.

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"Traditionally, coffee has been seen asuważany za a bad thingcoś złego," says Marc Gunter, professor of cancer epidemiologyepidemiologia at Imperial College London and former head of the section of nutrition and metabolism at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). "Research from the 1980s and 90s concluded that people who drank coffee had a higher riskwyższe ryzyko of cardiovascularsercowo-naczyniowy disease – but it's evolved since then."

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With more, larger-scale population studiesbadania populacyjne na większą skalę emergingpojawiające się over the last decade, Gunter says, scientists now have data from hundreds of thousands of coffee-drinkers. But what does the research tell us – and is coffee consumptionkonsumpcja providing health benefits, or risks?

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Gunter says there's enough consensuskonsensus across observational studiesbadania obserwacyjne to confirm that people who drink upwypijać to four cups of coffee a day have fewer diseases compared to those who don't drink any.

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The potential benefitpotencjalna korzyść of coffee could go furthersięgać dalej. Coffee-drinkers in Gunter's study were more likely to smoke and had unhealthier diets than non-coffee drinkers. This would suggest that if coffee does lower the risk of heart disease and cancer, it might be more powerful than we think – it's overridingprzewyższający the effects of unhealthy behavioursniezdrowe zachowania.

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However, all of this research was based on population data – which doesn’t confirmpotwierdzać cause and effectprzyczyna i skutek.

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People who consume coffee may simply have better underlyingpodstawowy health than people who choose not towybrać, żeby nie, says Peter Rogers, who studies the effects of caffeine on behaviour, mood, alertness and attention at the University of Bristol. That's in spite ofpomimo their unhealthier lifestyle habitsmniej zdrowe nawyki życiowe, as found in Gunter’s research.

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"Some people suggested there might be a protective effectefekt ochronny, which is somewhat controversialkontrowersyjny as it’s based on population evidencedowody populacyjne," he says.

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Meanwhile, people who consumespożywać coffee regularly often have higher blood pressurewyższe ciśnienie krwi, which should increase the risk of cardiovascularsercowo-naczyniowy disease. But, Rogers says, there isn't evidence that higher blood pressurewyższe ciśnienie krwi from drinking coffee is associatedzwiązany with higher risk of cardiovascularsercowo-naczyniowy disease.

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The small study, conducted by the Centre for Nutrition Exercise and Metabolismprzeprowadzone przez Centrum Żywienia, Ćwiczeń i Metabolizmu at England's University of Bath, looked at how coffee affects the body's response to breakfast after a fragmentedfragmentaryczny night's sleep. They found that participants who drank coffee, followed by a sugary drink that stood in forzastąpił breakfast, had a 50% increase in blood sugar, compared to when they didn't consume coffee before "breakfast".

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Still, this kind of behaviour would have to happen repeatedlyzdarzać się wielokrotnie over timez czasem for the risk to accumulategromadzić się.

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Putting people into laboratory settingswarunki laboratoryjne also brings upporusza the question of how relevant the findings are to real life – indicating that neither population, or lab research can provide definitiveostateczny answers on how coffee affects our health.

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Emily Oster, an economistekonomista and author of the book Expecting Better, which explores the data around pregnancy recommendationszalecenia dotyczące ciąży, also found guidance around coffee to be inconsistentniespójny.

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"The big concerngłówny problem is the possibility that caffeine consumption is linked to miscarriageporonienie, especially in the first three months," she says.

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But, she says, there isn’t much randomisedzrandomizowany data on this, and drawing conclusionswyciąganie wniosków from observational datadane obserwacyjne isn't reliable.

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"Women who drink coffee in pregnancy are likely to be older and are more likely to smoke. We know age and tobacco consumption are causallyprzyczynowo linked to higher rates of miscarriagezwiązane z wyższymi wskaźnikami poronień," she says.

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"The second issue is that women who are nauseousmdłości in early pregnancy are less likely to miscarryporonić. These women also avoid coffee – it's the kind of thingcoś w rodzaju that bothers youprzeszkadza ci if you're already feeling sick – so a lot of women who are nauseousmdłości and aren’t consuming coffee are less likely to miscarryporonić."

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Two to four cups of coffee a day, Oster says, don't seem to be related to an increased risk of miscarriageporonienie.

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Aside fromPoza coffee's potential effects on heart health, cancer and miscarriage, there is how it influences the brain and nervous system. Caffeine is a psychoactivepsychoaktywny drug, which means it affects our cognitionkognicja.

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For regular drinkers, meanwhile, there's bad news for those who drink coffee for a boostzwiększenie in concentration.

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"As the body gets used toprzyzwyczaja się do receiving caffeine on a daily basis, there are physiologicalfizjologiczne changes that adapt the body to live with caffeine and maintain normal functionutrzymać normalne funkcjonowanie," says Rogers. "Consuming coffee produces no net benefitkorzyść netto to our ability to work efficiently because we become toleranttolerancyjny to that effect, but as long as you keep consumingkontynuować spożywanie it, you're probably not worse offnie w gorszej sytuacji."

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The only people who stand tomieć szansę use caffeine to their advantagekorzyść, he says, are those who don't drink it regularly.

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At the other end of the spectrumz drugiej strony spektrum, many people joke aboutżartować z being addicteduzależniony to coffee. But in most cases, they’re just dependent, says Rogers.

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"There’s a low risk of addictionuzależnienie to caffeine – if you take it awayzabrać coś from someone, they don’t feel great but they’re not strongly craving it," he says.

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Coffee, he says, demonstrates the difference between addiction, where there is a compulsionprzymus to get the drug, and dependence, where the user’s cognitivepoznawczy performance is impaired, but they don’t go to lengthszrobić wszystko, co w ich mocy to get it.

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The only thing coffee-drinkers need to be aware ofbyć świadomym, he says, is withdrawalodstawienie. “Anyone who drinks a few cups of coffee a day is dependentuzależniony on caffeine. If you took their coffee away, they’d be tired and would maybe have a headache,” Rogers says.

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These symptoms depend on how much coffee the person was drinking, but they usually last between three days and a week, he says – in which timew tym czasie, caffeine is the only thing that will alleviatezłagodzić them.

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The way you brew your coffee – whether lovingly craftingtworzenie it from bean to cupod ziarna do filiżanki or throwing some instant powder into a mugwrzucenie trochę proszku instant do kubka – doesn’t seem to change the association with better health. By studying people across Europe, Gunter found that various types of coffee still were associated with health benefits.

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"People drank a smaller espresso in Italy and Spain; in northern Europe, people drank larger volumesilości of coffee and more instant coffee," says Gunter. "We looked at different types of coffeeróżne rodzaje kawy and saw consistentspójne results across counties, which suggests it’s not about types of coffee but coffee-drinking per sesamo w sobie."

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While it may not help you throughpomóc ci przetrwać a busy day at work, Gunter says the available, up-to-date evidencedowody suggests that drinking up to four cups of coffee a day could have health benefitskorzyści, including lower risk of heart disease and cancer.

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"It's common sensezdrowy rozsądek that if you drink too much of anything it's probably not good for you, but there's no strong evidencedowody that drinking a few cups a day is bad for health," he says. "If anythingjeśli już, it's the opposite."

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* This article was originallypierwotnie published on 29 October 2020. It was updatedzaktualizowany on 6 November 2024 to include recent researchnajnowsze badania.

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