Café Cibales

The Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter reports on a research conducted by Harvard Univeristy and the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid that suggests that there is no link between coffee consumption and heart disease. The study's break through underscores that correlation is not equal causation. In the sample of over 120,000 individuals it was evident many coffee drinkers have other less healthy habits that may increase heart disease. SO, keep your coffee warm and jump to action: stay healthy.

Excerpt from the news article:

"Go ahead, have another cup of coffee. A newly published study that followed some 120,000 men and women for up to 20 years has found no link between coffee consumption and higher risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).

The researchers, at Harvard University and the Universidad Autonoma in Madrid, did find that heavy coffee drinkers tend to have a lot of unhealthy habits. Java junkies were much more likely to smoke and drink alcohol, and less likely to exercise. But when those and other risk factors for heart disease were accounted for, simply drinking coffee—even lots of it—did not prove to be related to higher risk of CHD. The strong correlation with smoking, the investigators speculated, may explain why a previous study using data from the British National Health Service found a link between coffee drinking and heart disease, since smoking is a known risk factor for heart disease."

To read the rest of this article go to:

http://healthletter.tufts.edu/issues/2006-07/coffee.html