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Coffee and Cancer

Coffee consumption is associated with a modest reduction of total cancer incidence.

April 3, 2012 |
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Supplementary Info

Coffee and Cancer, 5.0 out of 5 based on 3 ratings

Sources Cited

Yu X, Bao Z, Zou J, Dong J. Coffee consumption and risk of cancers: a meta-analysis of cohort studies. BMC Cancer. 2011 Mar 15;11:96.

Acknowledgements

Images thanks to FCRebelo  and Urban Hafner via Wikimedia Commons, and Kukuruki.

Transcript

One of the reasons it’s so difficult to study the relationship between diet and cancer is because many dietary behaviors are associated with nondietary behaviors. For example, the reasons we used to think coffee drinking caused cancer was because people who drink coffee are more likely to have a cigarette in the other hand. When you factor that out, though, for example, by just looking at nonsmokers who do or don’t drink coffee we find that if anything coffee consumption may reduce the total cancer incidence.
Not by much, but overall, according to the latest review, an increase in consumption of 1 cup of coffee per day was associated with about a 3% reduced risk of cancers, especially bladder cancer, breast cancer, mouth, colorectal, endometrial, esophageal, liver, leukemic, pancreatic, and prostate cancers.
Coffee beans aren’t really beans, but you are, after all, just soaking a powdered seed in some water, so a reduction in cancer risk not that surprising.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

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Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

What about the caffeine though? Find out in tomorrow's video-of-the-day! I still don't recommend people drink coffee—not because it's not healthy, but because there are even healthier choices. Coffee is like a banana, a common convenient plant-based food. If you have a choice, I'd encourage people to make healthier fruit choices (apples are better, berries are best) and choose a healthier beverage, like green tea. See my 20 videos on tea, as well as the hundreds of other videos on more than a thousand subjects. Note that the meta-analysis this video is based upon is open access, so you can download it by clicking on the link above in the Sources Cited section.

For more context, check out my associated blog posts: Coffee Caveats, Poultry and Penis Cancer and  Gerson Therapy for Cancer?

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    What about the caffeine though? Find out in tomorrow’s video-of-the-day! I still don’t recommend people drink coffee—not because it’s not healthy, but because there are even healthier choices. Coffee is like a banana, a common convenient plant-based food. If you have a choice, I’d encourage people to make healthier fruit choices (apples are better, berries are best) and choose a healthier beverage, like green tea. See my 20 videos on tea, as well as the hundreds of other videos on more than a thousand subjects. Note that the meta-analysis this video is based upon is open access, so you can download it by clicking on the link above in the Sources Cited section.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/valnaples/ valnaples

    NICE! I only enjoy one cup of organic freshly ground coffee each a.m. (NO cigs! I’m from a family of smokers but I have never smoked)…and the rest of the day at work is filtered water and green and white tea with lemon. I have noticed that my SECOND cup of coffee just does NOT taste as good as my first so I have no problem with one cup to start my day.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/poxacuatl/ Poxacuatl

    I guess it’s the acrylamides in the roasted coffee berries that make it unfavorable. A new trend is to drink raw coffee. Not sure how that would taste; sounds interesting. A “raw” flavor doesn’t sound too good, but, if it’s similar to a green tea, then maybe it would be.

  • Paulc

     I’m astounded by the sudden switch in opinion in the scientific community
    about the health effects of coffee. For as far back as I can remember all the news about coffee was bad and then suddenly, a few years ago, the news suddenly turned to all good. At the same time however, I’ve been
    following stories that tell another tale of the scientific community,
    one of deceit and betrayal of the public trust. It seems that most
    scientific studies are not and cannot be duplicated, that special
    interests (Big Coffee?) influence their outcome, that academics
    sometimes try to make a name for themselves by falsifying data, of
    payola and corruption and fraud, that if lies are told often enough and in a
    great enough variety of ways, they become the new facts. It seems to me that a
    little skepticism would serve us well. This is particularly true for
    coffee since few of us want to hear bad news about our addiction.

    • Paddycakes

      I am astounded that someone who would be intelligent enough to be reading Dr. Greger would be myopic enough to through the baby out with the bath water, and throw scientific research out with it. In Psychology, we call that cognitive dissonance.

  • david z

    Does anyone know how putting milk in your coffee affects the health value? This is how I drink my coffee, but the tea with milk studies worry me.

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