Is a latte bitter, and does sweetened coffee affect mortality risk?

A latte tastes mild rather than sharply bitter because steamed milk and foam dilute the espresso and its sugars coat the palate, so the roast's bitterness registers less. A 2022 study adds context: researchers at Southern Medical University analyzed over 170,000 UK Biobank participants and found moderate intake of both unsweetened and sugar-sweetened coffee was tied to lower mortality risk.

The sugar-sweetened group added only about one teaspoon per cup, far less than the syrup-laden drinks sold at cafes, so the finding does not cover high-sugar fancy coffee. Data came from 24-hour dietary recalls, and the pattern held for all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Whether instant coffee causes cancer has not been confirmed by this research.

Coffee has become one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world, and its market in China continues to expand. More and more research focuses on coffee's impact on health, but previous studies often overlooked the difference between sweetened and unsweetened coffee. In 2022, a team from Southern Medical University published a paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine, analyzing the relationship between unsweetened, sugar-sweetened, and artificially sweetened coffee and mortality risk based on data from over 170,000 people in the UK Biobank. The results showed that moderate consumption of both unsweetened and sugar-sweetened coffee was associated with lower mortality risk, but the amount of sugar added to sugar-sweetened coffee was far lower than in commercially available fancy coffee drinks. This article interprets the core findings of the study and reminds consumers who enjoy high-sugar coffee to pay attention to the distinction.

Coffee firmly ranks second in global commodity trade, with an enormous consumer base. In China, the homeland of tea, the coffee market scale is also climbing year after year. Because coffee can refresh the mind and help improve work efficiency, it is highly favored by office workers.

As coffee consumption increases, people are paying more attention to its impact on health. A large body of scientific research suggests that coffee may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer, and many studies have also pointed to a link between coffee intake and reduced mortality risk.

However, many past studies did not distinguish between unsweetened coffee and coffee with added sugar or artificial sweeteners. In daily life, not everyone can accept the bitter taste of black coffee, and many people new to black coffee habitually add sugar for flavor. So what exactly is the health impact of sugar-sweetened coffee?

On May 31, 2022, Professor Mao Chen's team from Southern Medical University published a research paper titled "Association of Sugar-Sweetened, Artificially Sweetened, and Unsweetened Coffee Consumption With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality" in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The study explored the relationship between unsweetened coffee, sugar-sweetened coffee, and coffee with added artificial sweeteners and all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality.

The researchers selected 171,616 participants without cardiovascular disease or cancer from the UK Biobank database and obtained data through health behavior questionnaires. The participants were aged between 37 and 73, of whom 130,132 (75.8%) had a coffee drinking habit. Specifically, 55.4% of participants most often drank unsweetened coffee, 14.3% most often drank sugar-sweetened coffee, and 6.1% most often drank coffee with added artificial sweeteners.

During a 7-year follow-up, a total of 3,177 deaths were recorded, including 1,725 cancer deaths and 628 cardiovascular disease deaths.

The data showed that both unsweetened coffee and sugar-sweetened coffee exhibited a significant U-shaped association with all-cause mortality, while the association between artificially sweetened coffee and mortality was less consistent.

Compared with not drinking coffee, those who drank unsweetened coffee had a significantly lower mortality risk. Among them, those who drank 2.5 to 3.5 cups or 3.5 to 4.5 cups per day had the greatest reduction in mortality risk, reaching 29%.

Drinking sugar-sweetened coffee was also associated with reduced mortality risk. Those who drank 1.5 to 2.5 cups per day had the highest reduction in mortality risk, at 21%. But when drinking more than 4.5 cups per day, the mortality risk instead increased by 5%.

This seems like good news for people who like to add sugar to their coffee. But don't celebrate too soon — if you prefer high-sugar coffee drinks like toffee nut lattes or caramel macchiatos, the benefit of reduced mortality risk from sugar-sweetened coffee does not apply to you.

The study also specifically analyzed the amount of sugar added by sugar-sweetened coffee drinkers, finding that these adults added on average only about 1 teaspoon of sugar per cup of coffee, far lower in sugar content than drinks sold at popular coffee chains.

Image source: Internet

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.