Tufts Health and Nutrition Letter, May 2013 – For all you coffee drinkers out there, like me!

The evidence keeps percolating that coffee might have benefits beyond just helping you wake up in the morning. The latest such finding, from a large Swedish study, links coffee drinking to a reduced risk of stroke in women.

Although their study wasn’t designed to prove cause and effect, Susanna C. Larsson, PhD, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and colleagues commented in the journal Stroke, “Given that coffee is one of the most popular beverages consumed worldwide, even small health effects of substances in coffee may have large public health consequences.”

Larsson and colleagues analyzed data on 34,670 women, initially free of cardiovascular disease and cancer, participating in the Swedish Mammography Cohort. When that study began, the women filled out a questionnaire on diet that included coffee consumption; overall, they averaged three cups of coffee a day. Although the questionnaire didn’t ask about regular versus decaffeinated consumption, the researchers noted that few Swedes drink decaf.