Coffee Doesn’t Cause Cancer Recent Research Reveals (Plus Some Coffee Facts)
Channel: Daily Insight
Date: 2019-07-19

Research coming out of Queensland’s QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute has shown that daily coffee intake has no impact on one’s cancer risk. The research was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology and is titled “Association between coffee consumption and overall risk of being diagnosed with or dying from cancer among [more than] 300 000 UK Biobank participants in a large-scale Mendelian randomization study”.

One of the authors, Associate Professor Stuart MacGregor, said that the research involved analysing data from more than 300,000 people and found that drinking coffee every day neither reduced nor increased a person’s risk of developing cancer. Specifically, he said,

“We know that coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world, and there continue to be mixed messages about the role it plays in disease. We also know that a preference for coffee is heritable. Our two-pronged research looked at whether cancer rates differed among people with different levels of self-reported coffee consumption, and whether the same trend was seen when we replaced self-reported consumption with genetic predisposition towards coffee consumption. We found there was no real relationship between how many cups of coffee a person had a day and if they developed any particular cancers. The study also ruled out a link between coffee intake and dying from the disease.”

Results from previous research have been mixed. Earlier studies tended to show that coffee might increase risk of some cancer types. But many newer studies linked coffee drinking to a lowered risk of some types of cancer, including prostate cancer, liver cancer, endometrial cancer, and some cancers of the mouth and throat. Some animal studies have shown that coffee has an anti-tumour effect. But this new research coming out of Queensland says otherwise.

The issue with coffee is that it contains hundreds of biologically active compounds including caffeine, flavonoids, lignans, and other polyphenols. These compounds have been shown to increase energy expenditure, inhibit cellular damage, regulate genes involved in DNA repair, have anti-inflammatory properties, and lower the risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

But the new research shows that despite these potential other benefits, coffee does not reduce or increase cancer risk.

However, there was some doubt with the effects of coffee consumption on bowel cancer. Lead researcher, Jue Sheng Ong, went into detail. He said,

“There was some inconclusive evidence about colorectal cancer, where those who reported drinking a lot of coffee had a slightly lower risk of developing cancer, but conversely examination of data from those people with a higher genetic predisposition to drink more coffee seemed to indicate a greater risk of developing the disease. The disparity in those findings would suggest more research is needed to clarify if there is any relationship between colorectal cancer and coffee.”

Associate Professor MacGregor concluded with this statement,

“The health benefits of coffee have been argued for a long time, but this research shows simply changing your coffee consumption isn’t an effective way of protecting yourself from cancer.”

As promised, I’ll finish this video with five coffee facts.

- Coffee beans are actually the seed of a stone fruit. They are called beans because of their physical resemblance to beans, but are in no way related.
- Brazil is the leading coffee producer, followed by Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia, and Ethiopia.
- The Nordic countries are actually the biggest consumers of coffee per capita with Finland, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and the Netherlands making up the top five. Canada rounds out the top 10. I guess it’s the long winters in these countries that increase coffee consumption. Canadians love their coffee so much, it’s the nation’s most popular drink, even ahead of tap water!  In the top 25, the United States come in at number 25. Australia wasn’t even on the list.
- The United States has the most Starbucks locations, followed by China, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Despite their love of coffee, the Nordic countries don’t seem to be too interested in Starbucks.
- A Starbucks executive once said that coffee is the second-most traded commodity after oil. That’s just plain wrong. Soybeans and corn are traded much more than coffee.

Anyway, you need not worry about coffee causing cancer. However, it doesn’t seem to protect against cancer, either. The jury is still out on colon cancer risk, but I think it would be safe to say that a couple of cups of coffee a day won’t hurt you. If you’re a coffee drinker, continue drinking! If you’re not, there’s probably no reason to start.

MUSIC
Low by ELPHNT (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjEK32QlJe0Dy4nXxelXrww)

#dailyrantaustralia #coffee #cancer