How a Daily Cup of Coffee May Help Women’s Long-Term Health

A new study presented at the recent annual American Society for Nutrition meeting , NUTRITION 2025, that has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, suggests that regular, moderate coffee consumption in midlife is linked to health ageing in women.

My Modern Met reports that this study, drawing on data gathered over decades, found that women who consumed one to three cups of coffee daily were likely to experience a future of healthier aging. This is defined as reaching the age of 70 without any major chronic conditions.

Checking Many Boxes in Chronic Ailment Avoidance
The findings are encouraging.

As CDC, a US government website explains, chronic diseases are broadly defined as conditions lasting for a year or more that require ongoing medical attention, or limit activities of daily living or both. These persistent illnesses can cast a shadow over quality of life.

Yet this long-term study found that women who consumed one to three cups of coffee each day, estimated to be the equivalent of 1.5 large cups by current standards, were more likely to experience aging that was not weighed down by debilitating health conditions. They could expect lower rates of chronic illness, and better cognitive functioning in older age.

More specifically, as Medical News Today details, drinking coffee in midlife may minimize the risk of physical function limitations, memory complaints, mental health and cognitive impairments in women as they age.

The study also indicates that this positive association only related to caffeinated coffee, and was not seen with decaffeinated coffee or tea. Significantly, each small glass of soda, while also a source of caffeine, was linked to a 20-26 percent lower change of healthy aging.

Dr. Sara Mahdavi, a nutrition scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University,  and adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, Canada, in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Nutritional Sciences, presented the results. They show, she outlined, how small, consistent habits can shape long-term health, and that moderate coffee intake may offer some protective benefits in preserving both physical and mental health when combined with other healthy behaviors such as regular exercise, healthy eating, and smoking avoidance.

In addition, Mahdavi tells Newsweek that “the clearest takeaway was how consistent the findings were.”

A Study Decades in the Making
“Our study is the first to assess coffee’s impact across multiple domains of aging over three decades,” says Mahdavi, in a media release from The American Society for Nutrition.

This study draws upon 32 years of research. Its authors examined data on almost 50,000 women from the Nurses’ Health Study investigating the risk factors for chronic diseases in women. Their health and dietary data was collected consistently, and participants were asked about their caffeine intake, and how much coffee they were drinking.

In 2016, when the women were in their 70s, the researchers zoomed in on a smaller subset of women who met the criteria for “healthy aging.” Unexpectedly, in this smaller group of 3,706 women, each had typically consumed three small cups of coffee daily when they were aged 45-60. Among them, each additional cup of coffee per day boosted their health, increasing their chances of doing well later on in life by 2-5 percent.

According to My Modern Met, the researchers are planning to investigate how specific compounds in coffee interact with genetic and metabolic aging markers to influence aging pathways next.  They have set their sights on understanding these mechanisms in order to unlock a new era of personalized medicine for enhanced longevity and cognitive wellbeing.