The government thinks you should probably drink more coffee

When an expert U.S. panel released new dietary guidelines last week, its embrace of the egg got most of the attention. But the federal Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee also weighed in for the first time on a topic near and dear to many American hearts and brains: Coffee.

"Currently, strong evidence shows that consumption of coffee within the moderate range (3 to 5 cups per day or up to 400 mg/d caffeine) is not associated with increased long-term health risks among healthy individuals," the panel wrote. "In fact, consistent evidence indicates that coffee consumption is associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in healthy adults."

In interviews, panel members were more effusive. "Coffee's good stuff,” Cornell nutritionist Tom Brenna tells Bloomberg. "I don’t want to get into implying coffee cures cancer — nobody thinks that," but the evidence points to benefits, not health risks.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"That's great news if you're already drinking between three and five cups each day," notes Roberto A. Ferdman at The Washington Post. But "you probably aren't, because people in this country actually tend to consume a lot less than that. On average, Americans only drink about one cup of coffee per day." It's Monday morning and the weather is probably terrible: Have another cup.