Now a large randomised medical study done by QIMR Berghofer has found the reality appears to be that your morning pick-me-up is neither a risk nor a benefit.
“The problem with those (previous) studies is you get what’s called'confounding',where you think it’s the coffee consumption which is causing cancer risk or protection,but actually it’s other lifestyle factors,” said Associate Professor Stuart MacGregor,head of QIMR Berghofer’s Statistical Genetics Group.
To correct for that,the researchers used genetic data to find people who were naturally predisposed to like and drink coffee and used that criteria as a replacement for simple self-reported consumption.
“The genetic data gives us a much more robust indicator of whether changing your coffee consumption would change your cancer risk,” Professor MacGregor said.
The two-pronged survey looked at 300,000 coffee drinkers in Britain for general cancer risks.
QIMR Berghofer lead researcher Jue-Sheng Ong said the study also looked at the risk of developing individual cancers from drinking coffee,similarly finding no benefit or detriment from a morning latte or long black.