Findings of a recent study suggest that unsweetened coffee could be an unexpected ally in weight control.
A paper published recently in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition detailed the results of a study conducted by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The aim was to better understand how the consumption of coffee might reduce a person’s risk of weight gain in the long term.
Leveraging data from previous large-scale studies — the Nurses’ Health Study (1986-2010), the Nurses’ Health Study II (1991-2015), and the Health Professional Follow-up Study (1991-2014) — the researchers applied multivariable linear regression models to assess coffee habits and weight changes among a total of 155,218 participants for a period of four years.
They found that consuming an additional cup of unsweetened coffee daily was linked with a decrease of 0.12 kilograms in participants’ weight over four years. Adding cream or a non-dairy creamer had no apparent effect on this weight loss.
However, the addition of sugar definitely stirred the pot. The introduction of just 1 teaspoon of sugar negated the weight loss benefit, correlating instead with a gain of 0.09 kilograms over the same timeframe.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, another study recently shed some light on some of the possible effects of caffeine on the brain. Given caffeine’s stimulating effect, neuroprotective effects, such as enhanced clearance of brain waste, were seen.
This is because the brain blood flow in mice administered caffeine was found to have increased at all stages of sleep and reduced when awake. However, their sleep patterns had been altered — namely, their onset of sleep was delayed.
However, the Harvard study also found that decaffeinated coffee had the same weight loss benefits as caffeinated coffee.
Interestingly, researchers found that the links observed between unsweetened coffee and weight loss or sweetened coffee and weight gain were most impactful among participants who were young and either overweight or obese.
This might be food for thought, considering that the obesity crisis in the U.S. continues to grow, with recent data from the CDC showing that 22 states — including Texas — have reached an adult obesity rate of 35% or above.
Carrying excess weight has been linked to increasingly more negative health outcomes, including dementia, infertility, eye disease, and other severe illnesses, as The Dallas Express has extensively covered.