Enjoy a morning cup of coffee? It could be good news for your heart health — as long as you don’t drink coffee all day long.
A study from the European Society of Cardiology found that morning coffee drinkers have a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than all-day coffee drinkers.
Researchers set out to see if the time of day you drink coffee has any impact on heart health using information from over 40,000 adults who were surveyed about their consumption habits between 1999 and 2018.
They also observed benefits in morning coffee drinkers compared to people who didn’t drink coffee at all.
Around 36% of people in the study were morning coffee drinkers, 16% of people drank coffee throughout the day (morning, afternoon and evening) and 48% were not coffee drinkers, the researchers said.
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“Compared with people who did not drink coffee, morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to die of any cause and 31% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease. However, there was no reduction in risk for all-day coffee drinkers compared to non-coffee drinkers,” the study said.
It’s the first study to look at timing patterns when drinking coffee and the health outcomes, researchers said.
“Our findings indicate that it’s not just whether you drink coffee or how much you drink, but the time of day when you drink coffee that’s important,” said lead researcher Dr. Lu Qi from Tulane University in New Orleans. “We don’t typically give advice about timing in our dietary guidance, but perhaps we should be thinking about this in the future.”
