Brits are drinking 95 million coffees, but just how does it affect our health?

Us Brits love a good cup of coffee – but new research on just how much our love extends is enough to make us take stock.

The British Coffee Association (BCA) revealed today that the UK’s coffee consumption has now risen rapidly to 95 million cups a day in 2018. That’s a 25 million increase in 10 years (the 2008 count was 70 million).

The research – conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) – surveyed 2,000 adults in the UK. A third said they didn’t drink coffee, and six percent said they drink six or more cups per day. The average Brit was found to drink two cups per day.

But with coffee consumption at an all-time high, it’s worth looking at how bad (or good) coffee is for our health.

With SO many studies on the health pros and cons, it’s often hard to know what to believe, so we’re going to attempt to break it down.

Here’s what we know about coffee so far

A recent interview with Nutritionist Sarah Flowers, threw up some interesting ideas about coffee’s weight loss benefits. The expert explained that it was all to do with your metabolism.

“Your daily cup of coffee can help boost your metabolic rate, by stimulating thermogenesis, helping you in turn to burn more fat,” Flowers said, but warned it needed to be drank in moderation…

“The fat burning effect diminishes the more coffee you have and you could become intolerant to its effects,” she said. “So it is actually better to choose your coffee wisely and drink only a cup or two per day to enjoy all the benefits.”

However, researchers at Cornell University in New York had a different take, finding that caffeine can make you crave sweet foods.

This is all to do with its effect on your taste receptors. Caffeine appears to dampen them, meaning you don’t fully taste sweetness so still crave sugar-rich foods.

So, coffee can speed up your metabolism, but make you crave sugar.

Confused? We don’t blame you.

How many cups of coffee per day are good for you?

A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine revealed that drinking three cups of coffee a day could help us live longer.

The lengthy study of 500,000 people in 10 European countries found that higher levels of coffee consumption were, in fact, linked to a reduced risk of death, with three being the optimum amount.

Yet another study by researchers at Hospital de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain upped that number by one.

The scientists found that those who drank at least four cups of coffee a day had a 64% lower risk of mortality than those who didn’t drink (or barely ever drank) coffee.

Research published in the British Medical Journal corroborated this theory and even said that people who drank SEVEN per day would still enjoy a 10% reduced chance of death.

Should we start the day with a coffee?

If there’s one thing about coffee we thought we could be sure of, it’s that its powers to wake us up in the morning are near godlike.

But a cup of Joe first thing is a big no-no.

Personal trainer Max Lowrey told Femail that reaching for caffeine first thing will only make us more tired.

“Caffeine should be used as a performance enhancer, not something that allows you to function at a normal level,” she said.

Three, four, seven, AM, PM?! Who knows anymore…

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