Scientists in China looking through lifestyle data recorded in the United Kingdom agreed with previous findings that coffee drinkers live longer than their non-coffee-drinking counterparts.
However, it gets sweeter: Those who added a single spoonful of sugar to their joe enjoyed even less of a risk of death than those who skipped the spoon.
It boiled down to: unsweetened coffee drinkers had a 21% reduced risk of death statistically, compared to the 31% enjoyed by those who like things a little sweeter.
That said, don’t add sugar as a habit if you don’t already use it in your coffee, the scientists told the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. Also, an important thing to note: drinking coffee alone won’t extend your life, sweet or not.
In other words, they couldn’t prove that the coffee drinkers who had a reduced risk of death only had their mugs of mud to thank for their longevity.