Every other day we read about new studies that reveal [insert food you thought good for you] turns out to not only be bad for you, but also the leading cause of [insert health issue]. Despite being a killjoy when it comes to food consumption, science can occasionally bring us some good news; we can actually feel ok about something we thought might not be the healthiest to consume in large quantities. Namely: coffee.

It turns out that drinking three to five cups of coffee a day might help you live longer. A scientific study of more that 200,000 people found that moderate coffee drinking reduces the risk of dying prematurely from heart disease, neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, and Type 2 diabetes. It also found that coffee reduced the risk of suicide.

Interestingly, the study found that whether the coffee contained caffeine or not didn’t make a difference. The benefits are thought to be linked to other plant compounds in coffee beside the stimulant. So if you are getting jittery after two cups of coffee, not to worry, you can switch to decaf and still gain the benefits.

According to lead scientist Ming Ding, from the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health in the US: “Bioactive compounds in coffee reduce insulin resistance and systematic inflammation. That could explain some of our findings. However, more studies are needed to investigate the biological mechanisms producing these effects.”

The results, published in the journal ‘Circulation’, are from a pooled analysis of three large on-going studies, which asses coffee-drinking using a food questionnaire completed every four years for 30 years. There were a total of 208,501 male and female participants.

The analysis took into account the effects of other lifestyle factors such as smoking, body mass index, levels of physical activity, alcohol consumption and diet. Compared with people who drank little or no coffee, coffee drinkers have a significantly reduced risk of death across a range of causes.

The co-author of the study, Professor Frank Hu, said: “This study provides further evidence that moderate consumption of coffee may confer health benefits in terms of reducing premature death due to several diseases.”

Though many people wouldn’t consider two to five cups of coffee to be moderate, you can safely rest assured that your one to two cups a day are doing you no harm.