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A study of nearly 10,000 older women has linked heavy coffee consumption to lower bone mineral density, a finding complicated by one detail: moderate intake carries no such penalty, and the same researchers found that tea drinking is associated with better bone health.
The research, published in the journal Nutrients by scientists at Flinders University, tracked coffee and tea habits among 9,704 women aged 65 and older over a decade.
The team measured bone mineral density at the femoral neck and hip, sites where osteoporosis-related fractures tend to occur. Women drinking more than five cups of coffee daily showed lower BMD at those sites.
Those drinking two to three cups showed no negative association. Study co-author Ryan Liu told ScienceDaily that compounds called catechins, abundant in tea, may promote bone formation and slow bone breakdown.
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