Instead, coffee consumption is so pervasive that coffee drinkers are “normal” and many people that don’t consume coffee do so because it’s actually hurtful or uncomfortable … and that likely correlates to other weaknesses.
The same interpretation should be considered for all of those moderate drinking studies… I am quite certain nobody is getting a health benefit from alcohol.
> the data cannot conclusively prove that coffee itself lowers the risk of dying; there may be other lifestyle factors contributing to that lower mortality risk among people who drink coffee, like a healthy diet or a consistent exercise routine
...and controlled for in the study
> lifestyle, sociodemographic, and clinical factors
The effect where moderate alcohol use is beneficial have disappeared after better studies. It didn't prevent it from becoming "common wisdom".
Folks who drink alcohol should consider taking safer and more powerful drugs.
That is not exclusive to alcohol though. I am not extremely drug-savvy, but I do believe this is true for psilocybin mushrooms and a few other hallucinogenic plants/fungi.
> Folks who drink alcohol should consider taking safer and more powerful drugs.
This is often an issue with legality and sourcing for many, not to mention the cultural acceptance of alcohol by many cultures.
I don't think alcohol is somehow better than anything else, but I don't think it's that harmful either until you get well beyond the 14d / wk max recommendation.
There are plenty of other factors like meat consumption and exercise habits that have a bigger effect. I'm not giving up one harmless vice for an infinitesimal benefit. We're all going to die of something.
Not saying I agree, but thats my interpretation.
It also says they don't make the same conclusion about artificially sweetened coffee (the study says it's "less consistent"—seems I need to pass the paywall to see the numbers on that). One wonders if they believe that the artificial sweeteners are killing people, or that they interfere with the benefits of coffee, or if they'd say this reveals that selection effects are strong here.