Coffee and Reading – help you live longer

Don’t feel guilty having a coffee and sitting down with a good book – you’re looking after your health.

Scientists in both Europe and the US have concluded that drinking coffee helps you live longer. The European study of more than half a million people found that participants who drink three or more cups of coffee a day are 18% less likely to die than non-coffee drinkers.  People who consumed just one cup of coffee a day were 12 percent less likely to die compared to those who didn’t drink coffee at all.

The US study backed up these findings and these aren’t the only research reports to come up with these results. There have been plenty of more specific studies in the past linking coffee drinking to reduced risks of dementia and other diseases.

The scientists think that it’s the antioxidants in coffee which lower the risk of death from heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease. Coffee is one of the biggest sources of these valuable antioxidants in our diets. Both the caffeine and caffeine-free varieties have equal effect.

So, drinking coffee gives you more time to read good books – and reading in turn helps your health. Not only does it de-stress and entertain you, but there is evidence which shows it improves memory and concentration, thus helping keep Alzheimer’s and dementia away.
Mental stimulation is one of the best things we can do to prevent dementia and reading also allows us to relate better to other people by increasing our emotional intelligence through a better understanding of other people’s perspectives and motivations.

So, if you’re like me and you enjoy a nice coffee as you curl up on the sofa with a good book – then you’ll be pleased to hear it’s adding years to your life expectancy.