Morning or afternoon coffee? The health benefits depend on the time at which it is drunk

Be careful, you should not drink your coffee at any time of the day. According to a study published by the European Society of Cardiology, it is best to drink it before noon.

This is the first major study to look at the benefits of coffee depending on the time of day it is consumed. She confirms that coffee can have beneficial effects on health, but, and this is the new thing, that it only visibly works if it is consumed in the morning.

The results show that morning coffee drinkers have a 16% reduced risk of mortality from all pathologies, and a 31% reduced risk of mortality from heart disease. But these good scores are not found among those who drink coffee all day. They have an unchanged mortality rate, comparable to those who do not consume coffee at all.

To obtain these results, researchers analyzed responses to nutrition questionnaires answered by 40,000 people during an American national health survey. This is how they were able to obtain daily details of the quantities of coffee swallowed and the times of consumption. They then linked this information to the health record and the possible causes of death of each of the participants in the 10 years that followed.

The study does not describe the mechanisms at work, but according to the authors, a possible explanation is that consuming caffeine in the afternoon disrupts our internal clock, as well as the production of hormones like melatonin, hormone that regulates rest. Which can, through a chain reaction, lead to inflammation, an increase in blood pressure and changes in cardiovascular risk.

In the United States and Europe, health authorities recommend no more than 4 or 5 cups of coffee per day. It’s even 1 or 2 maximum for pregnant or breastfeeding women.

Everyone must trust their feelings, because we are not all equal when it comes to the effects of caffeine. Its exciting effect is on average halved in the space of 3 to 4 hours in an adult, but this stimulating effect persists much shorter in smokers and, on the contrary, much longer in pregnant women.