Despite conflicting research over the past few years, a large study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that drinking coffee could reduce a woman’s chance of developing certain types of cancer later in life.
Researchers looked at 67,000 women between the ages of 34 and 59 and noted their coffee habits and occurrence of cancer. Women who drank 4+ cups of coffee a day had a 25% lower risk of developing endometrial cancer than women who had 2-3 cups per day. (Those who drank 2-3 cups per day still had a 7% decreased risk of cancer as compared to non-coffee drinkers)
Coffee (both caffeinated and decaf) has known beneficial compounds that have been shown to reduce estrogen and insulin levels. But, perhaps inevitably, the study illustrates that coffee cannot overpower health issues, such as obesity or tobacco dependence, that increase the risk of cancer.
I remain skeptical about the Harvard study because it seems particularly difficult to keep all factors identical when comparing coffee drinkers with non-coffee drinkers. It seems unlikely that this was a truly controlled study. Most likely, java junkies tended to drink fewer unhealthy, sugary soft drinks and therefore reduced their risk of cancer by replacing a comparatively poorer health choice with coffee .
Coffee beans are a valuable source of antioxidants and have numerous benefits (cognitive performance, analgesic enhancement, etc) however, it is important to remember that the effect of coffee is simply correlated with decreased cancer risk and, for the time being, is not a direct causation.
3 comments:
Thanks for sharing this information. I too believe the jury is still out as we regularly hear conflicting information on this subject. So I will continue to enjoy my morning cup and wait for the next study.
While it makes me resistant to think coffee is "good" for me because of it's addictive properties, I definitely agree there are some good benefits from it. Great post!
" java junkies tended to drink fewer unhealthy, sugary soft drinks"
That's a good point. You don't need to down 6 Diet Cokes a day if you have 2 cups of coffee in the morning. It's hard to say X causes Y when it comes to health, because there are so many other factors that have to be interpreted on a case by case basis.
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