It’s always wonderful when something you enjoy turns out to be good for you. Many of us love that cup o’Joe each and every morning, and now we’re finding out that our morning coffee may also be helpful for healthy aging and longevity.
Research has shown that drinking 2 to 4 cups of coffee in midlife increased the likelihood of women reaching age 70 without being plagued with chronic conditions. Tea and decaffeinated coffee did not have the same impact.
Why Does Coffee Improve Longevity?
The study presented in June 2025 at the American Society for Nutrition followed 47,000 female nurses. Experts contend that it’s likely that both the caffeine and the antioxidant compounds like chlorogenic acids reduce conditions like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality.
“Coffee beans contain bioactive compounds that seem to increase longevity,” says Fang Fang Zhang, an epidemiologist at Tufts University who participated in another study on coffee and longevity.
Caffeine found in coffee affects energy balance and our basal metabolism, the metabolism when we’re at rest. It may also impact long-term weight gain, which is tied to a host of other conditions like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and general obesity. Chlorogenic acids have also been shown to improve insulin resistance and reduce blood pressure.
Interestingly, says Zhang, coffee may also impact bacteria in the gut, causing it to be more diverse, all leading to the health benefits of consuming coffee down the line.
Read More: Is Coffee Good for You or Not?
Benefits From Consuming Coffee
How you consume coffee matters, says Zhang. Her study, published in The Journal of Nutrition during the summer of 2025, followed 46,000 adults. It found that just two cups of coffee a day did the trick among the general population, reducing the risk of all-cause mortality. More than three cups daily did not show an increase in longevity.
It’s worth noting that the nurse’s study used a food frequency questionnaire versus the general population study, which used a twice-daily food recall chart to see what participants were eating. This shows that the general population study might have been more accurate, which is important because it considered much more moderate coffee consumption to hold the same benefits.
Diet recall also allowed researchers to really understand how coffee preparation, including added sugars and saturated fats, impacted its health benefits. Her team only found an increase in longevity for those drinking caffeinated coffee, not decaffeinated coffee. Although not that many people drank decaffeinated coffee in either study, so this portion may warrant additional research.
Coffee Preparation May Impact Its Health Benefits
Drinking sugar and fat-laden coffee reduced its benefits, according to the study. Specifically, adding more than a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar per 8-ounce cup and/or adding more than a tablespoon of cream or four tablespoons of 2 percent milk began to eat into the nutritional benefits of coffee consumption.
Additionally, some people are also more sensitive to caffeine, for example, experiencing mild jitters and anxiety or more serious conditions in some, such as heart palpitations, high blood pressure, and sleep disturbances. This group might need to limit consumption. The two studies differed on how much coffee was enough, but we do know that some is better than nothing and that numbers might be different from person to person.
Still, the bottom line is that the age-old enjoyment that comes from your morning cup of coffee is mostly a win. Be moderate around sugar and cream, stay away from processed creamers, and don’t have too much. But enjoying coffee is likely to help you get your day started right for many years to come.
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.
Read More: 5 Unexpected Ways Coffee Influences Our Behavior
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Sara Novak is a science journalist based in South Carolina. In addition to writing for Discover, her work appears in Scientific American, Popular Science, New Scientist, Sierra Magazine, Astronomy Magazine, and many more. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia. She’s also a candidate for a master’s degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University.
