Lifestyle — Experts Confirm Coffee Is Good For Your Health, Unless You Do This One Thing
by Talia Koren

We're always looking for reasons to drink more coffee. Who doesn't want to hear that one of their habits is actually good for them? I know I do. Last year I cut coffee out for nine months, but it turns out I wasn't doing myself any good by quitting.

Over the past decade, it's been proven over and over that coffee has lots of health benefits, such as decreasing the risk of Type-2 Diabetes and Alzheimer's.

This morning, a panel of experts from the World Health Organization have confirmed that coffee may help prevent some forms of cancer, like liver and uterine cancers. They also found that even if you drink decaf, you can still get these health benefits because there's apparently no correlation between caffeine and coffee's anti-cancer properties.

That being said, there's one thing about drinking hot coffee that can increase your chances of a specific type of cancer. Drinking scalding hot coffee (and tea) can potentially damage the lining of the throat, which can eventually cause esophageal cancer.

Obviously, letting hot drinks chill for a minute or two before you drink could easily help prevent the threat of this type of cancer.

Apparently, people in the US and in Europe tend to drink their hot beverages at a cooler temperature compared to people in other parts of the world. For example, in South America, mate tea drinkers use a metal straw, making their tea even hotter than it already is. This increases their risk of throat damage -- so maybe skip the straw when drinking hot coffee, if that's a thing you do.

To all the hot coffee drinkers, it might even be good for your health for more than this reason to switch to iced coffee or cold brew once in a while. Cold brew, which already has the health benefits of hot and iced coffee, is also better for your stomach.

Even if you're drinking three to five cups of coffee a day, you have nothing to worry about. According to a panel of scientists held last year, this moderate amount of coffee drinking may help lower the risk of chronic disease. So don't ever feel bad about going for that next cup of coffee, just make sure not to drink it too hot.

Citations: Coffee May Protect Against Cancer, W.H.O. Concludes (New York Times)