Coffee can treat this debilitating condition, research shows
According to a National Coffee Association survey performed in March 2020, coffee is more popular than ever. Coffee is consumed by seven out of ten Americans every week, 62 percent every day, and the average American coffee drinker consumes slightly more than three cups each day.
Americans are huge fans of coffee. And it’s possible that java loves its drinkers back. According to new research, drinking coffee on a regular basis may help to alleviate depression. Here’s how the evidence stacks up.
Benefits evidence
The following two studies quantify the mood effects of coffee, according to a review released by Alan Leviton, a professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School:
Researchers discovered that persons who drank more coffee had a lower risk of depression than those who drank less or no coffee in meta-analyses involving over 300,000 participants—8,000 of whom were depressed. Those who drank roughly 400 mL per day, or 13 ounces, saw the greatest effect.
Researchers discovered that those who drank more than 2 cups of coffee per day had a 32 percent lower prevalence of self-reported depression than those who did not drink coffee in a Korean study including nearly 10,000 adults, which was also included in the analysis.
The antidepressant effects of coffee are further supported by the findings of a study published in Nutrients. In this study, Spanish researchers looked at the link between coffee use and depression risk in 14,413 university graduates while controlling for Mediterranean diet adherence. To determine coffee consumption, researchers employed a food-frequency questionnaire.
The researchers discovered that people who drank at least 4 cups of coffee per day had a decreased risk of depression than those who drank less than 1 cup per day. It’s worth noting that the researchers found no overall inverse linear dose-response relationship between coffee consumption and depression.
