The Harvard study states: this is the amount of coffee you should drink to protect the brain

The study was conducted by a team of researchers from Harvard University’s School of Public Health, using two of the largest and oldest databases in the world, the American Nurses Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. In both studies, detailed data on nutrition, lifestyle and health were collected over decades, while periodically updating the drinking and eating habits of the participants.

According to the findings, people who drank two to three cups of coffee a day, or one to two cups of tea a day, showed the greatest positive effect. Among middle-aged coffee drinkers there was an 18% decrease in the risk of developing dementia later in life, while among tea drinkers there was a 14% decrease. On the other hand, the researchers did not find a similar effect among those who consumed decaffeinated coffee or tea.

However, it is important to interpret the results with caution. It is possible that the positive effect is not only due to the caffeine but due to additional factors, such as a higher quality diet, a higher socioeconomic status, or healthy lifestyle habits that are often characteristic of coffee and tea drinkers.

The researchers themselves mention that coffee and tea do not only contain caffeine. Coffee, for example, includes hundreds of bioactive compounds that affect inflammation, glucose metabolism, vascular function and oxidative stress. These processes are associated with chronic disease and aging, so they may contribute to the protective effect observed in the study.

However, the experts agree that drinking coffee or tea is not a substitute for proven brain-protecting lifestyle habits. Regular physical activity, quality sleep, avoiding smoking, balancing blood pressure and diabetes, a diet rich in plant foods and maintaining social relationships, are considered to be much more central factors in maintaining cognitive health.

In conclusion, the new study joins a series of works that indicate that it is not necessary to give up coffee or tea as part of a healthy lifestyle, and they may even have a certain contribution to brain health. But the researchers emphasize that they should not be considered a magic solution, but rather a small part of a wide complex of healthy habits.