Melissa Donovan
Can a coffee a day keep the doctor away? A new study from Harvard University found that drinking the caffeinated beverage can lead to healthy aging in women.
The study analyzed nearly 50,000 women over 30 years and found women who “moderately consumed” coffee in midlife were more likely to age well, with a 2-5 percent increase in healthier aging with each additional cup. Evidence showed women who drank caffeinated coffee regularly were more likely to avoid cognitive decline, chronic disease, and physical impairment later in life.
Sara Mahdavi, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, presented the findings at NUTRITION 2025, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, on June 2 in Orlando.
“Our study has several key strengths,” Dr. Mahdavi said in a press release. “In addition to the large sample size and 30 years of follow-up, we assessed several different aspects of longevity and healthy aging as well as very comprehensive information on nutritional and lifestyle habits that were collected every four years after the initiation of the study.”
The health benefits were noted in middle-aged women who drank caffeinated coffee; decaf coffee, tea, and caffeinated sodas did not have the same effect. This finding suggests coffee’s specific combination of bioactive compounds may be linked to certain nutritional values.
While soda also contains caffeine, the study found people who drank it every day had a 20-26 percent reduced chance of healthy aging.
The women who qualified as “healthy agers” consumed an average of 315 mg of caffeine daily, primarily from coffee. Healthy aging was defined as living to 70 or older, being free of 11 major chronic diseases, maintaining physical function, and having good mental health. By 2016, 3,706 of the women in the study met the requirements to be considered “healthy agers.”
The group studied was predominantly made up of white, educated female health professionals, meaning further work is essential for generalizability.
Researchers were able to assess caffeine intake using a food frequency questionnaire, including caffeine contributors such as coffee, tea, soda, and decaf.
The study also sees coffee’s health impact to be “relatively modest” compared to habits of an overall healthy lifestyle such as regular exercise, nutrition and not smoking.
Researchers noted that, in general, up to two cups of coffee per day should be safe and potentially beneficial for most people; anything beyond that could offer additional health benefits for some but not others.
To better understand the health benefits of caffeinated coffee, researchers plan to look at how the bioactive compounds in coffee interact with “genetic and metabolic aging markers” in women. This could lead to more personalized medical approaches, such as diet plans supporting long-lasting cognitive health for individuals.
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