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Over the years, multiple studies have enumerated the health benefits of drinking coffee in moderation but for the first time, scientists have figured out when consuming the famed beverage could provide the best results. As per the study published in the European Heart Journal, limiting coffee intake in the morning may have more benefits than spreading your consumption throughout the day. The research team, led by experts from Tulane University in the US, tracked people in the study for almost a decade before publishing the results.
“This is the first study testing coffee drinking timing patterns and health outcomes. We don’t typically give advice about timing in our dietary guidance, but perhaps we should be thinking about this in the future,” said lead author Dr Lu Qi.
Among the 40,725 study participants, two distinct patterns of coffee drinking were observed. For participants with morning-type pattern, coffee consumption was mainly concentrated in the morning (between 4 am and 11:59 am). Meanwhile, for participants with an all-day-type pattern, coffee consumption was spread throughout the whole day in the morning, afternoon (between 12 pm and 4:59 pm), and evening (between 5 pm and 3:59 am).
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Study findings
By the end of the median follow-up period of nearly 10 years, the researchers found that morning coffee drinkers were 16 per cent less likely to have died compared with those who drank no coffee. Moreover, they were 31% per cent less likely to have died from heart disease. No reduction in risk for all-day coffee drinkers was observed compared with those who did not drink any coffee.
“Our findings suggest that coffee drinking in the morning may be more strongly associated with lower mortality than coffee drinking later in the day,” the study claimed, adding that it highlighted the importance of considering drinking timing in the association between the amounts of coffee intake and health outcomes.
Dr Qi added that research so far indicates that drinking coffee does not raise the risk of cardiovascular disease and also seems to lower the risk of some chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. A possible explanation is that drinking coffee in the afternoon or evening could disrupt the circadian rhythms and levels of hormones such as melatonin — which in turn raises the risk of cardiovascular issues.
