Coffee does more good than bad for body, study says

Drinking three to four cups of coffee a day can positively impact health more than it can harm it, according to a study published Wednesday.

Health researchers looked at more than 200 previous studies and linked coffee consumption to lower risk of premature death, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, dementia, some cancers, type 2 diabetes and liver disease, in a study published inThe BMJ British medical journal.

Earlier this year, Spanish researchers reported 20,000 people who drank at least four cups of coffee a day had a 64% lower risk of death than those who never or almost never drank coffee. Two studies published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in July also connected coffee consumption to a longer life.

But, this news might not be strong enough to start a coffee habit.

An editorial by Eliseo Guallar from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Md., says there is no way to know if coffee prevents chronic disease and reduces mortality because there are too many factors to weigh like why people start drinking coffee and what kind of coffee drinks they're drinking.

Guallar says doctors should not recommend drinking coffee to prevent disease and people should not start drinking coffee to improve health.

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