Sweetened Or Unsweetened? Drinking Coffee Linked To Lower Death Risk Either Way: Study

Does adding sugar to your coffee affect its benefits? People who drink coffee, whether sweetened or unsweetened, have lower death risks compared to non-coffee drinkers, a new study has found.

Previous studies had also looked into the association between coffee consumption and lower death risks, but they didn't take into account whether the coffee was sweetened (with sugar or artificial sweeteners) or non-sweetened, the researchers wrote in a paper, published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages, and there is a longstanding interest in understanding its health effects," the editors of the journal noted in an accompanying editorial.

For the new study, the researchers from Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, analyzed the association between sugar-sweetened, artificially sweetened or unsweetened coffee consumption and all-cause mortality. Using information from the U.K. Biobank, they looked at the data of 171,616 participants who didn't have cardiovascular disease or cancer at the baseline levels. They were also asked about their coffee consumption habits, the American College of Physicians (ACP) said in a news release.

The researchers found that during the 7-year follow-up period, coffee drinkers were less likely to die than non-coffee drinkers. Specifically, those who drank "any amount" of unsweetened coffee were 16-21% less likely to die than non-coffee drinkers, while those who drank 1.5 to 3.5 daily cups of sugar-sweetened coffee were 29-31% less likely to die than the others.

"Moderate consumption of unsweetened and sugar-sweetened coffee was associated with lower risk for death," the researchers wrote.

The results, however, were rather "less consistent" among those who used artificial sweeteners.

The researchers said the sugar used by the participants in the study may be much lower than the amount used in coffee shops. In fact, they just used an average of one teaspoon of sugar per cup.

While there may not be a need to remove coffee from one's diet, since it also has other health benefits – from boosting energy levels to weight management, one should still watch out for specialty coffees that possibly contain much more sugar and higher calories.