The best time to drink coffee

A new study has discovered that the morning is the best time to drink coffee, and it comes with a variety of health benefits. Bryan Hubbard reports

A cup or two of coffee may do us good—but it also depends on when you drink it. The morning is the best time of day to reap the health benefits, which seem to fall away if you drink your brew in the afternoon or evening.

Morning coffee drinkers are 31 percent less likely to die from heart disease than non-coffee drinkers, and they also have a 16 percent lower risk of dying from any health problem, say researchers from Tulane University in New Orleans.¹

In a study of 40,725 people, the researchers concluded that morning coffee drinkers were healthier than those who drank it all day or didn’t drink it at all. Around 36 percent of the participants were morning coffee drinkers, and 14 percent drank it all day.

During the 10 years of the study, 4,295 of the participants died, including 1,268 from heart disease and 934 from cancer. But far fewer in the morning-coffee group died, and, after discounting other possible reasons, the researchers concluded that the most significant factor was the time of day they drank their coffee.

Having another cup or two also helped reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, as long as the extra coffee was consumed in the morning. However, the benefits started to decrease when participants drank more than three cups.

Although plenty of studies have shown the health benefits of drinking coffee, none looked at the best time of day to drink it. The researchers aren’t sure why the morning cup is so important, but they suspect that drinking coffee later in the day disrupts our circadian rhythms and levels of hormones, such as melatonin, that aid sleep.

“This, in turn, leads to changes in cardiovascular risk factors such as inflammation and blood pressure,” said Lu Qi, one of the researchers.

The power of the morning brew

Coffee is good for us, especially if we drink it in the morning. Here’s how much drinking coffee either in the morning or all day lowers our risk of death compared to not drinking coffee at all.

What’s coffee ever done for us?

Coffee can be great for our health. Its disadvantages often occur when we drink too much of it, and coffee drinks with a lot of sugar and additives may not offer the same health boost as those without.

The good

• Prevents Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
• Boosts alertness
• Improves cognitive function
• Improves mood
• Protects the heart
• Helps maintain muscle
• Lowers risk of cancer
• Boosts gut diversity
• Reduces type 2 diabetes risk
• Provides vitamins and antioxidants

The bad

• Increases anxiety
• Causes headaches
• Affects sleep
• Increases heart rate
• Causes heartburn
• Increases urgency to urinate

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