Saturday, August 25, 2018

Observational Data: Drinking coffee can be part of a healthy diet

Cleveland Clinic Reports
New research says you can drink as much as eight cups a day.
Cleveland Clinic’s Julia Zumpano, RD, did not take part in the research, but says the study showed that regular ground coffee had the most benefit. The researchers noted their results were based on observational data and should be interpreted with caution. “Nevertheless, these results provide further evidence that coffee drinking can be part of a healthy diet and may provide reassurance to those who drink coffee and enjoy it,” the authors concluded. Complete results of the study can be found in JAMA Internal Medicine.
July 2017
Observational evidence published in Annals of Internal Medicine
Journal Review - Richard Lehman
Coffee: wake up and smell the confounding
Two big observational studies suggest that coffee drinking is associated with longevity. You drink coffee, and would like to believe good things about coffee. So your first instinct, as you sip the aromatic liquid and feel the caffeine buzz, is to rejoice. But you are a scientist: look closer. The first study is of the EPIC cohort, where E stands for European. Over half a million Europeans recorded their coffee consumption on one occasion. Those who claimed to drink the most had a slightly higher rate of survival at 16.4 years than those who said they did not drink coffee. There was a markedly lower rate of death from gastrointestinal causes. Epidemiologically, it’s quite intriguing, but I defy anyone to conduct a randomised trial for a sufficient length of time. So at best we can say that coffee drinking is unlikely to be harmful. The same message emerges from a study of 185 855 Americans of mixed ethnicity, after adjustment for confounders. The coffee drinkers were a bit less likely to die over a period of 16 years, compared with non-coffee-drinkers. Don’t let your coffee get cold while you muse on these matters. Observational evidence is observational evidence and will never be anything more.

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