A new study conducted by researchers at Tulane University dug deeper into the health benefits of coffee drinking.
Based on the findings, consumers may want to skip their afternoon pick-me-up.
The researchers learned that when coffee drinkers keep their consumption to the morning hours, it leads to better health outcomes. Cutting off coffee intake at noon was linked with a lower risk of heart disease-related death and death from any cause.
“Research so far suggests that drinking coffee doesn’t raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, and it seems to lower the risk of some chronic diseases, such as diabetes,” said lead author Dr. Lu Qi.
“Given the effects that caffeine has on our bodies, we wanted to see if the time of day when you drink coffee has any impact on heart health.”
The health effects of coffee
For the study, the researchers analyzed data from over 40,000 adults enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2018.
Participants self-reported on their coffee intake, including details on the time and day and frequency with which they drank coffee. From there, the researchers compared their responses to corresponding death records.
Ultimately, the findings favored those who were morning coffee drinkers.
The researchers found that morning coffee drinkers were 31% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease and 16% less likely to die from any cause compared to their non-coffee drinking counterparts. However, for those who drank coffee all day, these same protective health benefits didn’t exist.
The study found that those who identified as moderate or heavy coffee drinkers – at least two cups, or more than three cups – had the greatest health benefits. Comparatively, morning coffee drinkers who stuck to one cup per day had lower mortality risks than both those who didn’t drink coffee and all-day coffee drinkers, though the association wasn’t as strong as those who were heavier coffee drinkers.
“This study doesn’t tell us why drinking coffee in the morning reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Qi said. “A possible explanation is that consuming coffee in the afternoon or evening may disrupt circadian rhythms and levels of hormones such as melatonin. This, in turn, leads to changes in cardiovascular risk factors such as inflammation and blood pressure.
“Further studies are needed to validate our findings in other populations, and we need clinical trials to test the potential impact of changing the time of day when people drink coffee.”