Drinking coffee regularly has become ingrained in Western culture. But how good is it for you?

The newest research found that drinking coffee is actually a healthy habit [Kim 2019]:
– 3.5 cups per day had lowest relation with death by all causes
– 2.5 cups per day had lowest relation with cardiovascular disease
– 2 cups per day had lowest relation with cancer

And they corrected these results for tons of things, including age, overweight status, alcohol drinking, smoking status, and most notably: caffeine content of coffee.

Earlier research confirms this [Grosso 2017]. They investigated 141 (!) meta-analyses (studies that study a collection of studies) on a link between coffee (and caffeine) consumption and numerous diseases.

So how does it work? It could be the anti-oxidants or nutrients in the coffee bean, but researchers remain uncertain.

Since we now know that it’s not the caffeine (they corrected for this), but rather the coffee beans themselves that give the health benefits, here’s a nifty tactic to get the best out of your coffee:

Drink the decaffeinated variant.

This way you can stay sensitive to the stimulating effects, since drinking over 2 cups per day will build up a tolerance and de-sentisize you.

Then when you really need it – a long day at work, or as a pre-workout boost – you can drink caffeinated coffee as a ‘secret weapon’ to boost your productivity and workouts.

– Stijn