Coffee doesn't cause cancer

The World Health Organisation has suggested coffee may actually help to prevent cancer
Coffee doesn't cause cancer, according to a new World Health Organisation (WHO) report.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/coffee-doesnt-cause-cancer

Writing in The Lancet, the WHO removed coffee from the Group 2b list of foods that are "carcinogenic to humans". But the temperature of coffee may have an impact on cancer.

"We found no conclusive evidence for a carcinogenic effect of drinking coffee," the WHO wrote. "However, the experts did found that drinking very hot beverages probably causes cancer of the oesophagus in humans."

"No conclusive evidence was found for drinking at temperatures that are not very hot."

The WHO first classified coffee as potentially carcinogenic 25 years ago, saying that it may cause bladder cancer. But after reviewing more than 1000 studies on the link between coffee and cancer, it concluded that there "was inadequate evidence for the carcinogenicity of coffee drinking overall".

Earlier studies into the carcinogenic risk of drinking coffee failed to take smoking into consideration. The WHO found that smokers tended to drink more coffee.

The new study also suggests coffee may actually protect from endometrial and liver cancer, as well as diabetes and liver disease.

In 2014, researchers from Johns Hopkins University found that coffee "significantly aids memory". Caffeine could "enhance memories up to 24 hours after it has been consumed", the team found.