Heavy Coffee Tied to Lower Bone Density in Older Women — SkimNews
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- Flinders University researchers tracked nearly 10,000 women aged 65 and older for 10 years, finding tea drinkers had slightly higher total hip bone mineral density than non-tea drinkers — a difference described as statistically significant.
- Moderate coffee consumption of two to three cups per day showed no association with harm to bone health, but drinking more than five cups daily was linked to lower bone mineral density at the hip and femoral neck.
- Heavy coffee's negative effects were more pronounced among women with higher lifetime alcohol consumption, while tea's apparent bone-density benefits were stronger among women with obesity, according to the study published in Nutrients.
- Tea compounds called catechins may promote bone formation and slow bone breakdown, co-author Ryan Liu said, while coffee's caffeine has been shown in laboratory studies to interfere with calcium absorption — effects he noted can be offset by adding milk.
- Adjunct Associate Professor Enwu Liu emphasized the findings were modest and not large enough to justify major lifestyle changes, while still suggesting 'moderate tea consumption could be one simple way to support bone health.'
- The study drew on data from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures and was funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
Why it matters: For the roughly one in three women over 50 affected by osteoporosis worldwide, this long-term study of nearly 10,000 participants adds a modifiable daily-habit lever — swapping or moderating hot beverages — on top of calcium and vitamin D. The nuance matters for press coverage: the bone-density risk applies only to women drinking more than five cups of coffee daily, not average drinkers.
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