Scientists from Southern Medical University found that adults who drank moderate amounts (1.5 to 3.5 cups per day) of unsweetened coffee or coffee sweetened with sugar were less likely to die.
The results for those who used artificial sweeteners were less clear.
The research is published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and was conducted by Dan Liu et al.
Previous studies have found that drinking coffee is linked to a lower risk of death but did not distinguish between unsweetened coffee and coffee consumed with sugar or artificial sweeteners.
In this study, the team used data from the U.K. Biobank study health behavior questionnaire to examine the associations of consumption of sugar-sweetened, artificially sweetened, and unsweetened coffee with death.
More than 171,000 participants from the U.K. without known heart disease or cancer were asked several dietary and health behavior questions to determine coffee consumption habits.
The team found that during the 7-year follow up period, people who drank any amount of unsweetened coffee were 16 to 21% less likely to die than participants who did not drink coffee.
They also found that participants who drank 1.5 to 3.5 daily cups of coffee sweetened with sugar were 29 to 31% less likely to die than participants who did not drink coffee.
Adults who drank sugar-sweetened coffee added only about 1 teaspoon of sugar per cup of coffee on average.
But for participants who used artificial sweeteners in their coffee, the link was not clear.
Researchers note that while coffee has qualities that could make health benefits possible, other lifestyle factors may impact findings.
Based on this data, doctors can tell their patients that there is no need for most coffee drinkers to eliminate the beverage from their diet but to be cautious about higher calorie specialty coffees.
If you care about wellness, please read studies that coffee for diabetics, good or bad, and 8 ways to prevent stroke and spot its warning signs.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about how unhealthy blood pressure increases your dementia risk, and results showing this healthy diet may strongly prevent memory loss and dementia.
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