I've never been a coffee drinker. But after hearing about these recent studies, I just may have to start drinking it.  Because if someone needed another reason to have a second cup of coffee in the morning or a few cups during the day, science has confirmed it.  If you drink more coffee, you will live longer and could have a less chance of developing certain diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and suffer from liver complications.

Coffee is more than just a dark, colored drink that is filled with caffeine. Coffee drinkers (and non-coffee drinkers) may not be aware that the liquid actually contains many compounds that may benefit people's health.

Many different compounds can be found in coffee beans. So when water runs through the coffee grounds to make either a pot or a simple cup of coffee, those compounds then transfer into your cup, which you then drink.

Of course everyone associates caffeine with coffee, but coffee drinkers are also ingesting antioxidants which protects our body from something called oxidation. Oxidation is believed to be linked to cancer and heart disease and has also been known to accelerate aging. Many studies are now showing that coffee consumers are getting more antioxidants from their coffee than both fruits and vegetables.

Another study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, asked about 402,000 people between the ages of 50 and 71-years of age, how much coffee they consumed in a day. After following those asked for about 12 years, those that drank more coffee, were still alive.

The data that was collected showed that the magic number seems to be about four to five cups per day. This number proved that men had a 12% reduced risk and women a 16% reduced risk of death.

Another health benefit of a good cup of joe is happiness. Harvard University has conducted studies to show that coffee makes people happy, reducing the risk of depression by (at times) up to 20 percent.

So despite having gotten a bad image in the past, according to several studies, go ahead and indulge in another cup. Because coffee isn't as bad for you as you might have originally thought.

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