You should probably be drinking more coffee (says science)

See that guy above? He's an immortal superhero, because he's drinking coffee.

At least, that's (sort of) what scientists are suggesting, as a new study has revealed that moderate coffee consumption - counted as between three and five cups a day - may reduce the risk of suffering from a large range of health problems.

Among them are heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and neurological conditions, such as Parkinson's and dementia. However, it won't help you survive cancer. Sorry about that, but it can't do everything, right?

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Intriguingly, there was no difference between normal and decaf coffee, which suggests that other bioactive compounds within coffee are responsible for the good news.

Ming Ding, lead author of the study, published in the journal Circulation, said, "Bioactive compounds in coffee reduce insulin resistance and systematic inflammation. That could explain some of our findings. However, more studies are needed to investigate the biological mechanisms producing these effects."

The study took in a group of over 200,000 men and women, with questionnaires conducted over 30 years; co-author Professor Frank Hu, from the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, like Ding, added: "This study provides further evidence that moderate consumption of coffee may confer health benefits in terms of reducing premature death due to several diseases."

Meanwhile, Emily Reeve, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, stated: "It is important to remember that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is what really matters if you want to keep your heart healthy, not how much coffee you drink. Previous research suggests that drinking up to five cups of coffee a day is not harmful to your cardiovascular health, and this study supports that. But more research is needed to fully understand how coffee affects our body and what it is in coffee that may affect a person's risk of heart attack or stroke."

Well, more research is always good, but let's assume coffee is great shall we?

(Image: Shutterstock)