咖啡可以帮助你活得更久

Coffee May Help You Live Longer 咖啡可以帮助你活得更久

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

Today we have more good news for all our coffee drinkers around the world. Another new study finds that drinking coffee can help you live longer.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health recently discovered that drinking between three and five cups of coffee a day may prevent certain illnesses. They found that coffee can protect against heart disease, brain diseases, type 2 diabetes¹ and suicide.

Walter Willett is a nutrition researcher at Harvard and co-author of the study. Willet says the findings extend to both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee – or decaf, as Americans often call it.

So, the health benefits come not just from the caffeine in coffee, but from the compounds in the beans.

Study methods

The large study of about 200,000 subjects included data from three ongoing² studies. Subjects in the study had to answer questions about their coffee drinking habits every four years over a 30-year period.

Researchers found that moderate coffee drinking was linked with a reduced risk of death from many diseases. These diseases include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurological diseases such as Parkinson's, and suicide.

However, the researchers found no link between coffee drinking and cancer.

Researchers also considered other habits such as smoking, obesity³, and how active the subjects were. They also looked at what kinds of food the subjects ate, as well as how much alcohol -- and what type of alcohol -- they drank.

They published their findings in the journal Circulation.

All things in moderation

This Harvard research adds to a growing body of evidence. This body of evidence finds drinking a moderate of coffee may have many health benefits, including a longer life. This is according to one of the researchers involved in the study.

Frank Hu is senior author of the study. He is also a professor of nutrition and epidemiology. He studies how food affects illness.

Hu adds that data from the study support the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory⁴ Report. This report found that drinking a moderate amount of coffee can be part of a healthy diet.

But how much and when you drink coffee is important.

You may remember another study we reported on recently. That study said drinking coffee too late in the evening can disrupt your sleep.

Questions

Not everyone feels the recent Harvard study confirms anything.

The news organization NPR spoke⁵ with one expert who warns that not everyone reacts to coffee the same way. Andrew Maynard of Arizona State University told NPR that the health benefits documented in this new study are “small.”

Maynard says the study does not prove cause and effect between drinking coffee and living longer. He says the study points to an association, or link, between drinking coffee and living longer.

Even those involved in the research still have questions.

When NPR spoke with study co-author Walter Willett, he said he is not sure how coffee is linked to certain health benefits.

Willett says the take-home message – in other words, the important thing to learn – is that if you like coffee, do not feel guilty about drinking it in moderation. If you don’t like coffee, don’t feel you have to start drinking it to be healthy.

Words in This Story

decaffeinated – adj. not containing caffeine : having the caffeine removed

association – n. a connection or relationship between things or people

subjects – n. a person (or animal) used in an experiment, study, etc.

body – n. a group of things that are related or connected in some way?

moderate – adj. average in size or amount : neither too much nor too little

moderation – n. the avoidance of excess or extremes, especially in one's behavior or political opinions

1 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

2 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

3 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

4 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。