Up to 5 Cups of Coffee a Day Safe For Heart Health, According to AHA

• The American Heart Association (AHA) published a statement confirming how much caffeinated coffee is safe to drink each day. 
• Adding flavorings like sugar, cream, and syrups to coffee can cancel out coffee’s heart-health benefits, however. 
• The statement noted that the higher levels of caffeine in energy drinks can be harmful to heart health.

A growing body of evidence suggests that drinking coffee may have health benefits. But when it comes to heart health, how much coffee is safe to drink?

On July 20, the American Heart Association (AHA) published a scientific statement outlining how much caffeinated black coffee is safe to drink each day. The authors say that for most people, up to 5 cups of coffee per day is beneficial.

Added flavorings like sugar, cream, and flavored syrups, however, could cancel out the heart health benefits that black coffee provides. 

The statement also notes that higher caffeine levels in energy drinks can be harmful to heart health.

“With each year, patients are becoming savvy with their health and nutrition and asking very important questions,” said Matthew Saybolt, MD, medical director of the Structural Heart Disease Program at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center in New Jersey, who wasn’t involved in the scientific statement.

“I am regularly asked about coffee intake as it pertains to cardiovascular diseases like hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and coronary artery disease,” Saybolt told Healthline. “Physicians now have a scientific statement and the support of the AHA to give patients evidence-based guidance on the topic. And as a habitual coffee drinker myself, I am thrilled with the results.” 

5 cups of daily coffee is safe for most adults

This scientific statement was broadly intended to summarize the latest and best evidence regarding caffeine and various forms of cardiovascular disease, said Gregory M. Marcus, MD, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, and chair of the AHA’s scientific statement volunteer writing group.

After reviewing the latest research, the statement group determined that consuming up to 400 mg of caffeinated coffee per day (about 5 cups) is safe for most adults. 

“For those that currently enjoy consuming caffeinated coffee or tea, they should be reassured that doing so is very likely not increasing their cardiovascular risk and may even have some benefits,” Marcus told Healthline.

“However, those suffering from insomnia or premature ventricular contractions may consider at least experimenting with less caffeine or caffeine abstinence to determine if it helps,” he noted.

How much coffee is in a cup? 

Cheng-Han Chen, MD, a board certified interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA, explained that the statement defines a cup of coffee as an 8-ounce serving.

“Most people don’t understand what an 8-ounce serving is,” Chen, who was not involved in this study, explained to Healthline.

“For instance, I’m holding a cup of coffee in my hand right now, which is kind of the average Starbucks cup. This is 16 ounces, so really, this is two servings that I’m holding. But people think this is just one cup of coffee.” 

Sugars, flavorings may diminish benefits of coffee

In the AHA’s statement, researchers report that drinking caffeinated black coffee may be associated with a lower risk of heart diseases like coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, and a type of irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation.

However, scientists point out that coffee add-ins, such as sugar, cream, milk, and flavored syrups, may cancel out coffee’s potential health benefits. 

Saybolt said his dietary advice for coffee is the same as the dietary advice he gives all his patients — get off the sugar and cut down on dairy in parallel with a Mediterranean or plant-based diet. 

“I drink three to four cups of black coffee a day,” he explained. “For my coffee drinking patients, I would advise them to wean themselves off the dairy and sugar as well, to get the maximal health benefits of coffee.” 

Chen recommended gradually backing off on coffee flavorings.

“Perhaps for the first week or two, one less pump of syrup, and then gradually reduce the amount of sugar, so that your taste buds have time to adjust,” he detailed. ”By the end of the process … I would predict that you might actually start enjoying the taste of coffee rather than the taste of creamer and sugar.”

Caffeinated energy drinks may be harmful to your heart

The AHA’s statement also says that higher levels of caffeine in energy drinks and shots — sometimes as much as 4 times that of a cup of coffee — can increase a person’s risk of heart conditions like high blood pressure and irregular heart rhythm. 

“Coffee has many other chemicals, biologically active chemicals, besides caffeine,” Chen explained. “And it’s likely that some of these other chemicals are responsible for the health benefits of coffee. And so when we talk about caffeine, really, we’re talking about coffee intake.”

“If we talk about caffeine intake from other sources, such as energy drinks or caffeine pills, for instance, it could be that without the other beneficial chemicals in coffee, you do not get the same health benefits,” he continued.

“These energy drinks and caffeine pills frequently have extremely high levels of caffeine as well as other types of stimulants, which could actually be detrimental to heart health.”