3 cups of coffee a day lower heart risk

The good news about drinking coffee keeps coming. A new report presented at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology found that drinking three to five cups of coffee every day lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) by up to 21 percent.

The study, which was published by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee, a not-for-profit organization that studies coffee's impact on health, found that those who drink three cups of coffee each day showed the lowest mortality risk of CVD at 21.1 percent. 

Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the United States, killing almost 800,000 Americans every year. 

Coffee was also associated with a lower risk of diabetes. Those who drank three to four cups a day lowered their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 25 percent when compared to those who drank less than two cups daily.

The meeting also featured research that showed a combination of five healthy behaviors — healthy diet, moderate alcohol consumption, no smoking, physical activity, and no abdominal fat — could prevent 79 percent of heart attacks in men and cut the risk for women by half.

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