Study Finds How Many Cups of Coffee Per Day May Benefit Your Heart

It turns out your coffee addiction might actually have some health benefits for your heart. 

A new study published in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism set out to examine how consuming moderate amounts of coffee or caffeine on a regular basis can help protect us from developing multiple cardiometabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and stroke in our lives. To do this, they examined the medical information of nearly 300,000 U.K. Biobank participants to learn more about coffee consumption and cardiometabolic disease. 

The team found that regular coffee or caffeine intake at moderate levels was associated with a lower risk of new-onset cardiometabolic multimorbidity, defined as the presence of at least two cardiometabolic diseases at once. 

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While three cups of coffee a day might seem excessive to some, it might be the sweet spot to reap the popular drink's benefits. 

"Consuming three cups of coffee, or 200 to 300 milligrams [of] caffeine, per day might help to reduce the risk of developing cardiometabolic multimorbidity in individuals without any cardiometabolic disease," study lead author Chaofu Ke said of the findings, per Science Daily. "The findings highlight that promoting moderate amounts of coffee or caffeine intake as a dietary habit to healthy people might have far-reaching benefits for the prevention of cardiometabolic multimorbidity."

Compared with non-caffeine consumers or minimal consumers of less than 100 milligrams per day, those who had a moderate amount of coffee (three drinks per day) or caffeine (200 to 300 milligrams per day) had a 48.1 percent or 40.7 percent lower risk of new-onset cardiometabolic multimorbidity. The average cup of coffee contains approximately 95 milligrams of caffeine. 

It's the latest study to point out the heart health benefits of multiple cups of coffee per day. Still, because this research is observational, it doesn't truly confirm a connection between caffeine and heart health, but rather an association or correlation. More direct research into this phenomenon is required in order to determine just how helpful coffee consumption alone can help prevent cardiovascular issues. 

So, don't go guzzling gallons of coffee just yet.