Coffee Supports Longevity, So Why Not Make This MD's Favorite Cold Brew?

In the second study, led by the University of Southern California, which sought to examine coffee's powers among an ethnically diverse group of people between the ages of 45 and 75 over a nearly 20-year period, the results echoed the findings above: higher consumption of coffee was associated with lower risk of death—notably, from various types of cancer.

Both studies show that coffee might be protective, but here's the interesting part: It's not the caffeine that gets the credit. Polyphenols and other bioactive compounds in coffee have antioxidant properties, and coffee's well-documented association with reduced insulin resistance, inflammation, and biomarkers of liver function are attributable to these compounds, unrelated to the caffeine. Moreover, coffee contains xanthines, chemicals that can inhibit xanthine oxidase, which, as you'll recall, is the enzyme required for the production of uric acid.

And in a third large study, using data amassed from 14,758 participants in the United States enrolled in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers from the University of British Columbia and Harvard found an inverse relationship between coffee consumption—both caffeinated and not—and uric acid levels: Uric acid decreased with increasing coffee intake. Their findings ruled out other factors that could have skewed the results, including the participants' weight, alcohol consumption, and diuretic use. They did not see this relationship between tea consumption and uric acid. So if you don't like to drink coffee because of its caffeine content, decaf can be just as beneficial for reducing acid.

I'm a huge proponent of coffee for all adults and believe the benefits far outweigh any risks, unless of course you have any adverse reactions or allergies to the drink— these are rare but do affect some people. You can drink decaf and still reap acid-dropping benefits. Most Americans down a couple of cups of coffee a day, and I'm all for it. The one thing to be careful about, however, is ensuring that your caffeine consumption does not affect your sleep quality. It's helpful to switch to decaf coffee or caffeine-free teas in the afternoon. A good cutoff time is 2 p.m.

Yield: 2 servings