Drinking one or more cups of coffee every day can protect you against three cancers – even if you smoke or drink.
Coffee seems to have a protective effect against oral, pharyngeal and esophageal cancers, and that effect remained strong even among those more likely to suffer from one of the cancers, such as cigarette smokers and heavy drinkers.
Even drinking just one cup of coffee a day seems to help, as researchers discovered when they explored the lifestyles of 38,679 Japanese people aged between 40 and 64 years. Over a 13-year period, 157 cases of one of the three cancers were recorded, but participants who drank one or more cups of coffee a day halved their risk.
(Source: American Journal of Epidemiology, 2008; doi: 10.1093/aje/kwn282).