It’s healthy to drink a Gilmore Girl-quantity of coffee, according to these new guidelines
Coffee, coffee, coffee. Lorelai and Rory Gilmore love their coffee to a degree that some (ahem, Luke) consider unhealthy. But maybe those Gilmore Girls were on to something with their extreme caffeine intake. According to new U.S. dietary guidelines, drinking up to five cups of coffee a day can be considered part of a “healthy lifestyle.”
The question has been debated for years: Is coffee healthy? Is it good for you, or bad for you? We’ve heard the old wives’ tale that coffee stunts your growth, and read arguments from both sides. But this news definitely tips the scales to the “healthy” side of things, and we couldn’t be happier.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are updated every five years, has never addressed coffee—until now. But the federal advisory committee that helps write the guidelines finally weighed in, stating that “strong and consistent evidence shows that consumption of coffee within the moderate range…is not associated with increased risk of major chronic diseases.”
And! If that wasn’t enough good news, the committee also said that drinking as many as five cups of coffee a day could reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and liver and endometrial cancers. We’ll take another cup, please.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you should start guzzling coffee to reach five cups a day. Don’t forget that genetics affect how coffee affects your body. Some people metabolize caffeine more slowly than others, and coffee might leave them at higher risk of things like hypertension and heart attacks. And this also doesn’t mean that all cups of coffee are suddenly healthy; there are things like cream and sugar to consider. But if you’re a coffee lover, it’s comforting to hear there are reasons that your habit is a healthy one.
BRB, going on a Starbucks run.
(Images via Warner Bros.)
