Coffee drinkers have lower risk of death, study finds

Coffee lovers, rejoice: Your daily habit once again has been deemed acceptable — even beneficial — by a pair of peer-reviewed studies.

Driving the news: A recent analysis in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that those who drank 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee a day — even sweetened with sugar — were 29% to 31% less likely to die than non-drinkers, Axios' Tina Reed writes.

Why it matters: Previous studies have observed coffee is associated with a lower risk of death, but didn't distinguish between unsweetened java and coffee consumed with sugar.

• The jury is still out on artificial sweeteners.

Yes, but: They're talking about moderate intake.

• The study was based on data that is about 10 years old from the U.K. where the average coffee drinker is using roughly a teaspoon of sugar — not downing caramel macchiatos.

The bottom line: This doesn't offer evidence that one should start a coffee habit for its benefits. But: "If you're a regular coffee drinker, there's no need to give it up," said one of the study's authors.

Of note: Another recent study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that basically all coffee drinkers — including those who drank decaf and those who drank as many as eight cups (!) daily — had a lower risk of death than those who didn’t partake.