With Canada Day around the corner and the warm days of summer settling in, there’s no better time to savour a leisurely cup of coffee whether it’s on the deck at the cottage, by the fire while camping, or at your favourite local coffee shop with your morning news stories. For many Ontarians, coffee is a small comfort that feels like home.
Now, new research from Tufts University suggests that this comforting habit might be doing more than just waking you up: it might actually be helping you live longer too. The study, published this month in The Journal of Nutrition, found that drinking one to three cups of caffeinated coffee each day was associated with a lower risk of death from all causes, especially heart disease. But there's one important detail. The benefit only showed up when people kept their coffee simple: black or with very little added sugar or cream.
“Coffee is among the most-consumed beverages in the world … it's important for us to know what it might mean for health,” said Dr. Fang Fang Zhang, lead author of the study and a nutrition professor at Tufts. “The health benefits of coffee might be attributable to its bioactive compounds, but our results suggest that the addition of sugar and saturated fat may reduce the mortality benefits.”
So yes, that cup you sip in the morning sun could be doing your heart a favour. But maybe skip the double-double.
The study followed over 46,000 adults, using nearly two decades of dietary data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. People who drank their coffee black, or with only a little milk and sugar, saw a 14 to 17 percent lower risk of early death. But once you get into heavy cream, flavoured syrups, or spoonfuls of sugar, the health benefits basically vanish.
For those with a family history of heart disease or managing conditions like high blood pressure or cholesterol, this research hits home. Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of death in Canada, and making small, consistent changes can go a long way. As Dr. Zhang’s team found, even something as simple as adjusting how you take your coffee might have a small impact.
“Few studies have examined how coffee additives could impact the link between coffee consumption and mortality risk, and our study is among the first to quantify how much sweetener and saturated fat are being added,” said Bingjie Zhou, first author of the study.
While the study didn’t find the same benefits for decaf (likely because fewer people in the sample drank it), it did reinforce something that many of us already understand intuitively: the small things matter. Especially when we do them every day.
So, this Canada Day weekend, when you're sitting lakeside at the cottage or enjoying a peaceful morning at your favourite downtown café, think about what’s in your cup. If it’s black coffee or just a splash of milk, you’re not just enjoying a peaceful moment, you might also be quietly supporting your long-term health. And that’s something worth raising a mug to.
