Timing your coffee may matter as much as how much you drink

People who drink coffee in the morning may be less likely to have metabolic syndrome than those who do not drink coffee at all, according to a new study. The association, however, did not appear among people who spread their coffee consumption throughout the day.

The Korea Food Communication Forum introduced the findings Wednesday, citing a paper published in July in the online edition of the British Journal of Nutrition. The study was conducted by a research team led by Maoqi Sun of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in China, and analyzed data from 11,632 adults aged 20 and older who participated in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

People who concentrated their coffee intake in the morning were 20 percent less likely to have metabolic syndrome than non-coffee drinkers. Among those who spread their consumption across the day, no statistically significant association with metabolic syndrome was found.

"Concentrating coffee consumption in the morning was associated with a lower likelihood of metabolic syndrome," the research team wrote in the paper. "This suggests that when studying the relationship between coffee and health, it is necessary to consider not only the amount consumed but also the timing."

However, the findings should not be interpreted as evidence that morning coffee prevents metabolic syndrome. The study was an observational analysis of existing survey data examining the relationship between the time of day coffee was consumed and the presence of metabolic syndrome at that time — not a clinical trial in which participants were assigned to drink morning coffee and then tracked over time for disease onset. Further research is needed to determine whether morning coffee directly reduces the risk of metabolic syndrome.