This isn’t your typical doom and gloom coffee study—coffee might actually be helping us.
A new Spanish research study shows that more coffee consumption is associated with lower risk of death.
The study, which was presented during the European Society of Cardiology Conference in Barcelona, Spain, finds that patients who drank at least four more cups of coffee a day had a 64% lower risk of death than those who never or almost never drank coffee.
The research wasn’t done lightly—it was conducted by Hospital de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, and featured nearly 20,000 participants and followed up with them for an average of 10 years.
The study also found for participants who were 45 or older, drinking two additional cups of coffee was linked to a 30% lower risk.
Surprisingly, the connection remained even when the researchers controlled for factors including gender, smoking status, and whether the coffee drinkers added sugar to their coffee, according to Time.
But recent research also shows that drinking caffeinated coffee could be the reason why coffee drinkers crave sugar, thus affecting people’s weight loss and long term health.
For all the negative press about coffee, these Spanish researchers might be helping coffee’s major PR problem.