Drinking coffee everyday could help you live longer, study reveals

Drinking 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee each day could help you live longer, new research has revealed.

What's more, adding a teaspoon of sugar to your cup of coffee could reduce your risk of dying even further, the American College of Physicians' study suggests.

Researchers from Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China came to the conclusion after analysing data from a study of more than 171,000 participants from the United Kingdom who did not have known heart disease or cancer.

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The researchers found that during the seven-year follow up period, those who drank any amount of unsweetened coffee were 16 to 21 percent less likely to die than participants who did not drink coffee.

The analysts further found that participants who drank 1.5 to 3.5 daily cups of coffee sweetened with about one teaspoon of sugar on average were 29 to 31 percent less likely to die than participants who did not drink coffee.

The results were inconclusive for participants who used artificial sweeteners in their coffee.

The study has been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, whose editors have warned that while coffee could make health benefits possible, variables such as socioeconomic status and diet make it hard to determine if coffee is the true cause of the reduced chances of death.

However, previous studies observing the health effects of coffee have also found that coffee consumption is associated with a lower risk of death.