Is Your Coffee Habit Good For Your Brain?
Perks and practical takeaways from the biggest study on coffee yet
Hello, everyone. I am writing to you as I savor my morning coffee—a ritual I look forward to every day. At the turn of the new year, I opted to cut back from three cups a day to just one. (This was based on personal reasons rather than scientific ones; as I’ll get into below, it’s perfectly fine to drink several cups a day.) Since then, I’ve gone down a rabbit hole to find out how to make my ONE cup of coffee as delicious and health-promoting as possible. After much research, I changed up how I source, grind, and brew my beans.
I am happy to report that my coffee is now more delicious than ever. Not only that, I am confident my brain is getting optimal short and long term perks.
Many studies report that coffee drinkers live longer and are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other types of dementia. That’s great news for coffee lovers but the truth is, there’s a lot more to coffee drinking that hasn’t been settled science. For example, does coffee have to be caffeinated to be good for you? Does adding sugar cancel out the health benefits? What about adding dairy products, creamers, and non-nutritive sweeteners? Until now, we haven’t had a handle on just how much dementia prevention you may be giving up if you take your coffee any way but black.
It’s not a trivial question for your brain health given that 73% of Americans drink coffee every day. And while 18% take coffee black, most prefer their daily dose in the form of a coffee shop drink enhanced with multiple ingredients. Americans like their coffee sweet: on average people use 3 packets of sugar or stevia in each cup and drink one to two cups a day. So while most studies agree that coffee drinking is good for the brain, they have been based mostly on data from countries where coffee is taken mostly black, unsweetened, and in the company of friends. Do we get the same benefit from drinking something like a whipped caramel white chocolate macchiato from a (microplastic-lined) paper cup?
This newsletter kicks off the first in a mini-series about coffee. Today, we'll see what the latest data says about the brain-healthiest way to consume coffee. Next time we’ll cover the best way to source, grind, and brew your beans. And, we’ll look at coffee alternatives such as mushroom drinks and other adaptogens. Along the way, please send me your coffee questions and I’ll be sure to include them in the mini-series.
Tea drinkers: Don’t feel left out! Refresh your knowledge about the brain health benefits of tea in these posts.
Why Drinking Tea is a Brain-Healthy Habit, The Best Way To Brew Tea For Maximum Polyphenols, Does Drinking Herbal Tea Support Brain Health?, All About Why Matcha Is Good For The Brain
Do coffee drinkers live longer? Apparently, yes.
Coffee drinkers have lower mortality, gaining an average of 1.8 years to their healthspan—defined as the length of time that one remains in good health. That’s the gist of pretty much every large scale observational study on the topic. And there is no paucity of research. This review article looked at over 50 studies in the last 20 years, all of which came to a similar conclusion: a major perk of drinking coffee is that you are less likely to die from a chronic illness such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, or dementia.
Of course, here on BHK we are keenly interested in the impact of food and daily habits on brainspan—the quality of brain function and cognitive abilities throughout life, rather than just the length of life. That’s why I was delighted to see a recent study tease out dementia risks depending on 1) whether you drink coffee or not, and 2) how you take it.
Researchers tackle coffee via the U.K. Biobank
Some of these coffee questions I mentioned above were posed in the latest study to come out of the U.K. Biobank, a huge database of more than 500,000 participants that has been looked at for many aspects of how food impacts brain health. You may recall that when the U.K. Biobank was applied to alcohol consumption and brain health, it led to many experts (including me) revising guidelines for safe consumption. Another study from this resource teased out the impact of meat on dementia risk with a detailed analysis by type of meat. Now, we have solid data on coffee drinking and dementia risk. The results may or may not surprise you.
The researchers wanted to challenge their own assumption that one type of coffee was superior for reducing dementia risk: unsweetened and caffeinated. In this study, one cup of coffee is defined as 250 mL, or 8.5 ounces. They analyzed coffee drinking habits of 204,847 participants ages 40 to 69 and divided them into these four categories:
non-coffee consumers (23.7%)
consumers of unsweetened coffee (53.9%)
consumers of sugar-sweetened coffee (15.6%)
consumers of artificially-sweetened coffee (6.6%)
Participants were also assessed for factors that could influence future brain health, such as alcohol intake, adherence to a Mediterranean diet, and tobacco use. Next they followed the participants’ brain health 9 years into the future. Specifically, they calculated the chance of developing Alzheimer’s or vascular dementia, Parkinson’s, and the risk of dying from any cause.
Here’s what they found:
The health benefit of drinking coffee is slightly greater at 3 to 4 cups a day than 1 to 2 cups a day.
The dementia-reducing benefit of coffee was not demonstrated in those who drank sugar-sweetened or artificially-sweetened coffee.
The dementia-reducing benefit of coffee was not demonstrated in those who drank decaffeinated coffee.
The lowest rates of dementia and mortality were seen in drinkers of unsweetened/caffeinated coffee. This was especially true when compared to those who do not drink coffee: 34% reduced risk of Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia, 37% reduced risk of Parkinson’s, and a 47% reduced risk of mortality, when compared to non-coffee drinkers.
This study has power in its numbers and careful design. And yet, like most nutrition data, it relies on participants to self-report their intake. Coffee self-reporting, however, is probably more accurate than other food questionnaires. Everyone who drinks coffee seems to have a specific way they like to take it, and a consistent level of consumption. Coffee drinkers, do you agree?
Takeaways on coffee and dementia risk
So what do we take from this study, while also considering all the other coffee studies that came before it? And what about adding milk, cream, plant-based milks, and processed creamers to coffee?