Yippee! It's Official: Coffee Will Make You Live Longer

If science says it, it must be true...

If you needed a sign to justify your third morning latte, we're pleased to give you this fantastic news.

According to new research by Harvard, drinking three to five cups of coffee a day could actually help you live longer by reducing the risk of dying prematurely from heart disease, neurological conditions such as Parkinson's disease, and Type 2 diabetes - and it could even lower the risk of suicide.

If you can't handle that much caffeine but want all the health benefits, fear not - the results worked just as well in decaf coffee, with the benefits thought to be linked to other plant compounds in coffee.

Over 200,000 male and female volunteers participated in the study, which involved monitoring coffee consumption through completing food questionnaires every four years for around 30 years - and the results showed that coffee can actually help us live longer by warding off sinister diseases.

Co-author Professor Frank Hu, from the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, said: 'This study provides further evidence that moderate consumption of coffee may confer health benefits in terms of reducing premature death due to several diseases.'

But Emily Reeve, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, warned against becoming too overexcited with the Nespresso machine.

'It is important to remember that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is what really matters if you want to keep your heart healthy, not how much coffee you drink,' she said. 'Previous research suggests that drinking up to five cups of coffee a day is not harmful to your cardiovascular health, and this study supports that. But more research is needed to fully understand how coffee affects our body and what it is in coffee that may affect a person's risk of heart attack or stroke.'

How much coffee do you drink? Tell us @marieclaireuk