It seems that every day something new is discovered that shows that coffee is a actually a healthy beverage, and that it really does not deserve the negative stereotypes that people generally attribute to coffee. Many people constantly feel guilty about drinking their coffee, but in the wake of a new study that shows coffee is full of both healthy antioxidants and many beneficial vitamins and minerals, is a new study that shows coffee actually helps to cut your risk of cancer. According to a new study out of prestigious Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, men who consumed six or more cups of coffee a day had much lower adjusted risk for prostate cancer than men who drank absolutely no coffee at all. Now that is a lot of coffee to drink every day for sure, and probably more than the average person would drink, but it is an amount of coffee that many coffee drinkers are capable of drinking, and an amount that many coffee drinkers would consider drinking if not for the guilt that is commonly associated with coffee consumption. And coffee was found to be so beneficial for the prevention of prostate cancer that it was found that the association with reduced cancer risk was even higher for the most lethal form of prostate cancer. And the good researchers at Harvard University uncovered that the beneficial effects of the coffee were completely unrelated to the caffeine content in the coffee. This goes back to all the other beneficial compounds that are found in coffee, that tend to be overshadowed by coffee’s caffeine content. In fact the study goes on to state that coffee is full of a host of “biologically active compounds” such as “phenolic acids” that have potent antioxidant activity which can effect glucose metabolism and even effect sex hormone levels. It is widely believed that the uptake of glucose is strongly associated with the growth of cancer cells, so if the coffee moderates the uptake of glucose by the cancer cells that could slow or even completely stop the cancerous growths.

So although many people still do continue to view coffee consumption as a negative, and as something that they should give up, the evidence continues to mount that coffee is misunderstood, and although the caffeine should be consumed in moderation, there are a host of other beneficial compounds in coffee that have a wide range of important health benefits.