What if a cup of coffee a day could help you age healthier? According to a massive study of nearly 50,000 women, caffeine might give coffee drinkers an aging edge.
As reported by CNBC, University of Toronto adjunct professor and Harvard University researcher Sara Mahdavi recently presented the study at an annual meeting of the American Society of Nutrition. While not yet peer reviewed or published, it offered experts at Nutrition 2025 interesting insight into how coffee could affect older adults.
“While past studies have linked coffee to individual health outcomes, our study is the first to assess coffee’s impact across multiple domains of aging over three decades,” Mahdavi said in a news release. “The findings suggest that caffeinated coffee — not tea or decaf — may uniquely support aging trajectories that preserve both mental and physical function.”
For the study, researchers observed decades of data on 47,513 women. They were given questionnaires to determine how often they were consuming things like coffee, tea, cola and decaffeinated coffee. After following up with the participants for 30 years, researchers determined how each 80 mg of daily caffeine consumption affected healthy aging.
“Our study has several key strengths,” Mahdavi said. “In addition to the large sample size and 30 years of follow-up, we assessed several different aspects of longevity and healthy aging as well as very comprehensive information on nutritional and lifestyle habits that were collected every four years after the initiation of the study.”
The study defined healthy aging as “living to age 70 or older, being free from 11 major chronic diseases, maintaining physical function, having good mental health, exhibiting no cognitive impairment and showing no memory complaints,” according to the news release.
By 2016, 3,706 women from the multi-decade study were deemed healthy agers. When 45 to 60 years old, on average, they consumed 315 mg of caffeine per day. That’s the equivalent of roughly 2.5 cups of coffee per day.
Over 80% of the caffeine they consumed reportedly came from coffee. The researchers ultimately determined that each extra cup of coffee per day correlated with a 2% to 5% increase chance of healthy aging — up to around 2.5 cups.
Coffee has already been linked to healthier hearts and longer living. In moderation, it might also help improve our quality of life as we age.
“These results, while preliminary, suggest that small, consistent habits can shape long-term health,” Mahdavi said. “Moderate coffee intake may offer some protective benefits when combined with other healthy behaviors such as regular exercise, a healthy diet and avoiding smoking.”
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
