--- title: Health Benefits of Drinking Coffee: Why Coffee Is So Good for You description: Researchers reviewed the largest studies done to date on the health effects of coffee and find that the drink does more good than harm. canonical: https://time.com/5033881/health-benefits-of-drinking-coffee/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-22T23:30:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:19:53.262Z article:section: Health og:title: 3 Reasons Why Coffee Is So Good for You og:description: The biggest benefits occur for people who drink about three cups per day og:url: https://time.com/5033881/health-benefits-of-drinking-coffee/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc257e273806e425c/6988e727096a949c096a08c1/coffee.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5235 og:image:height: 2945 og:image:alt: Cup of Coffee on colored background og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 3 Reasons Why Coffee Is So Good for You twitter:description: The biggest benefits occur for people who drink about three cups per day twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc257e273806e425c/6988e727096a949c096a08c1/coffee.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 3 Reasons Why Coffee Is So Good for You > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Nov 22, 2017 11:30 PM UTC  Cup of White Coffee on four segment color background Cup of White Coffee on four segment color backgroundGetty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Nov 22, 2017 11:30 PM UTC Coffee is increasingly earning scientists’ approval. Studies continue to suggest that the beverage may have some beneficial effects on health. In the latest analysis, published in the _BMJ_, researchers scanned nearly 220 studies on coffee and found that overall, coffee drinkers may enjoy more health benefits than people who don’t drink the brew. The scientists, led by Robin Poole from the University of Southampton in the UK, learned that people who drank coffee were 17% less likely to die early during the study period from any cause, 19% less likely to die of heart disease and 18% less likely to develop cancer, compared to people who did not drink coffee. Other [recent studies](http://time.com/4768860/is-coffee-good-for-you/) have linked coffee drinking to lower rates of [heart disease](http://www.extracrispy.com/drinks/4400/coffee-study-stroke-prevention), early death and diseases like liver cirrhosis, [type 2 diabetes](http://time.com/4133038/coffee-protect-type-2-diabetes/) and even neurological conditions like Parkinson’s and [Alzheimer’s disease](http://time.com/4642993/coffee-the-latest-antidote-to-aging/). Poole’s group found that the strongest benefit occurred among people who drank around three cups of coffee a day. “I think now we can be reasonably reassured that overall, coffee drinking is a safe habit,” says Dr. Eliseo Guallar, professor of epidemiology and medicine at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study. **MORE:** [Here’s Another Reason to Feel Good About Drinking Coffee](http://time.com/5022060/coffee-health-benefits-heart/) Other studies have tried to tease apart which ingredients in coffee contribute to its health benefits. Those might include its antioxidants, which can combat cancer, and anti-inflammatory compounds, which can reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as heart conditions and even neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s, as well as the risk of liver diseases like cirrhosis and cancer. While they say that the results support moderate coffee drinking as a relatively healthy habit, both Poole and Guallar say the findings don’t go far enough to prompt anyone to change their coffee-drinking habits in the hopes of improving their health. The study did not confirm, for example, that people who do not currently drink coffee should start adding a cup or two a day in order to lower their risk of getting heart disease or any of the other chronic conditions studied. The data also do not support the idea that current coffee drinkers should drink even more coffee to enhance whatever benefits they might be receiving. Too much coffee, the data suggest, starts to bend the benefit curve back down. The only negative health effects the review found were among women, who were at slightly higher risk of developing fractures if they drank more coffee, and pregnant women. Pregnant women who drank more coffee tended to have higher rates of miscarriage, more premature births and more babies born with low birthweight than women who drank less coffee, the study found. **MORE:** [Can Coffee Make Your Workout Easier?](http://time.com/4842065/coffee-before-workout-caffeine/) Poole notes that the analysis included a number of different studies, each with different designs, and not all of them may have adjusted for potential confounding effects that could skew the connection between coffee and health outcomes. Coffee drinkers, for example, also tend to smoke more than non-drinkers, and smoking has an effect on early death, heart disease and certain cancers. The findings should be reassuring for coffee drinkers, as long as they drink in moderation, Poole says. Further studies will hopefully look deeper into the type and amount of coffee that confers the most health benefit. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5033881/health-benefits-of-drinking-coffee/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5033881/health-benefits-of-drinking-coffee/"},"headline":"3 Reasons Why Coffee Is So Good for You","datePublished":"2017-11-22T23:30:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:19:53.262Z","description":"Researchers reviewed the largest studies done to date on the health effects of coffee and find that the drink does more good than harm.","url":"https://time.com/5033881/health-benefits-of-drinking-coffee/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","Heart Disease","Caffeine","Coffee","heart health","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc257e273806e425c/6988e727096a949c096a08c1/coffee.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc257e273806e425c/6988e727096a949c096a08c1/coffee.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Cup of Coffee on colored background","caption":"Cup of Coffee on colored background","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5033881/health-benefits-of-drinking-coffee/","name":"3 Reasons Why Coffee Is So Good for You"}}]}] ```