A Coffee a Day…

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It’s long been rumored that coffee isn’t good for you.

In fact, a new study found that people who drink a moderate amount of coffee per day – whether with or without sugar – appear to have a lower risk of early death, the Guardian reported.

Scientists recently studied the data of more than 171,000 people found in the United Kingdom’s BioBank database. The data trove provided information about participants’ profiles, including their age, gender, health status and diet.

Their analysis revealed that people who consumed 2.5 to 4.5 cups of unsweetened coffee per day had a 29 percent lower risk of death than individuals that didn’t drink any.

The team also saw a risk reduction in people who added sugar in their morning brew – at least for those drinking between 1.5 and 3.5 cups a day.

But the trend was less clear regarding people who used artificial sweeteners. The researchers added that many participants only added one spoonful of sugar, which makes it difficult to determine if the results would hold for specialty coffees with high sugar content.

Previous studies have suggested that coffee can be beneficial to health, including lowering the risks of liver disease, certain cancers and dementia.

Other scientists praised the findings but cautioned that they were not clear-cut. Christina Wee, the deputy editor of the journal that published the study, agreed that further research is needed but added that drinking coffee might not be harmful to most people.

“So drink up – …but…avoid too many caramel macchiatos while more evidence brews,” she wrote in an accompanying editorial.