More coffee linked to lower body fat in Oulu study

A study by the University of Oulu has linked higher coffee consumption with body composition and metabolism, Yle reports. The associations differed between men and women.

Researchers analysed data from more than 2,200 people in the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort, using information collected when participants were 46 years old.

They compared participants’ coffee consumption with metabolic substances circulating in the blood and with sex hormones.

People who drank more coffee had less total body fat and visceral fat, as well as more skeletal muscle mass. Men who drank more coffee also had higher levels of total and bioavailable testosterone.

The researchers said the findings suggest that hormonal mechanisms may partly explain the connection between coffee consumption and metabolic health.

“Millions of people drink coffee every day, but we still know surprisingly little about how coffee is linked to metabolism and hormones,” Luca Verroest, the study’s lead author and a doctoral researcher at the University of Oulu, said in a statement.

The study cannot establish that coffee consumption caused the observed changes.