Mine’s skinny… three cups of coffee each day cuts body fat
WOMEN who enjoy two or three cups of coffee a day have less body fat, scientists have claimed.
Compounds in the beverage may have anti-obesity properties causing total body fat percentage to fall in females of all ages. And it works with caffeinated or decaf.
Women aged 20 to 44 who drank two or three cups per day had 3.4 per cent lower belly fat than non-coffee drinkers.
And it was 4.1 per cent lower in those aged 45 to 69 who drank four or more cups daily, a study claims.
Overall, the total body fat was 2.8 per cent lower among women of all ages who had two or three cups of coffee every day.
Even if a woman had a chronic disease or smoked, the result stood.
Coffee appears to have a positive effect on men, but the relationship was less significant.
Males aged 20 to 44 who drank two or more cups per day had 1.3 per cent less total body fat and 1.8 per cent less trunk fat than non-coffee drinkers.
Regulate
Experts say coffee could become a key part of a healthy diet and help in the fight against obesity.
Study senior author Dr Lee Smith, of Anglia Ruskin University, said: “Our research suggests that there may be bioactive compounds in coffee other than caffeine that regulate weight and which could potentially be used as anti-obesity compounds.
“It could be that coffee, or its effective ingredients, could be integrated into a healthy diet strategy to reduce the burden of chronic conditions related to the obesity epidemic.”
But Dr Smith added: “It is important to interpret the findings of this study in light of its limitations – the study was at a specific point in time so trends cannot be established.
“However, we don’t believe that someone’s weight is likely to influence their coffee consumption.”
The findings, based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of the US Centre for Disease Control, were published in The Journal of Nutrition.