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Harvard Heart Letter | October 2008
Heart beat
Coffee: A connection to good health?
Some
coffee drinkers worry that their habit is a bad one — not nearly on a
par with smoking but in that general direction. Those worries are
groundless. In the past few years, coffee drinking has been shown to be
safe for heart attack survivors. It offers some protection against type
2 diabetes and gallstones. It is not linked to the development
of heart disease. Now, in the largest, longest, and most complete study
to date, overall death rates among nonsmoking coffee drinkers were no
higher than they were among nonsmokers who didn’t drink coffee, and may
even have been a touch lower (Annals of Internal Medicine, June 17, 2008).
Drunk
black and bitter, coffee is a calorie-free beverage brimming with
antioxidants. It eases artery-damaging inflammation and delivers a host
of substances that help the body regulate blood sugar and dissolve
gallstones.
Of course, coffee isn’t a health food. The
caffeine it contains is addictive. In some people, it causes the
occasional missed or extra heartbeat or a speedup in the heart’s
rhythm. Espresso and other unfiltered coffee can slightly increase the
level of harmful LDL cholesterol.
But up to a few cups a
day of regular coffee — we don’t include Frappuccinos or other
coffee-flavored sweets in this category — is fine for you.
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