Heavy Coffee Drinking Could Kill You

There had to be a catch. There’s an addition to the mountains of research that says coffee is healthy—for the brain, waistline, heart, etc. And this one isn’t so positive. Drinking too much of the stuff is associated with an earlier death, according to a new 16-year study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The magic number to stay safe is about 28 cups a week, or roughly four cups a day, doable for the majority of Americans who have about three cups per day. The study found that heavy coffee consumers were 21 percent more likely to die early than their more restrained counterparts and the risk increased by 50 percent in adults under 55 years old. Experts and the paper's authors caution that the study has several limitations and more research is needed.