Introduction: Coffee and tea consumption recommendations for a healthy diet have been changing in recent years as it has increased the level of evidence on their benefits has increased.
Objective: To know the frequency of coffee and tea consumption of in a high cardiovascular risk Mediterranean population (CVR) and to analyze whether there are differences between the consumption of these drinks by cardiovascular risk factors.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 945 people (340 males, 605 females) (67.4+/-6.2 years old) with high CVR recruited in primary care centres of Valencia, included in the PREDIMED study. Coffee and tea consumption has been determined through a validated questionnaire. We analyzed biochemical, clinical and anthropometric variables by standard methods.
Results: Tea consumption is very low in this Mediterranean population (0.4+/-1.6 cups/weeks). By contrast, coffee consumption averaged nearly one cup per day (6.5+/-5.2 cups/weeks). Hypertensive patients showed a lower overall consumption of coffee than in non-hypertensive patients (6.6+/-5.1 vs 7.3+/-5.9; P=0.023 respectively). These differences were greatest when caffeinated coffee consumption is analyzed (2.9+/-4.5 vs 4.3+/-5.3, P<0001). Moreover, diabetics consumed significantly less coffee and tea than non-diabetics (P=0.015 and P=0.022 respectively), these differences being greater for caffeinated coffee (P<0.025).
Conclusions: In conclusion, in this high cardiovascular risk Mediterranean population a coffee consumption pattern, based on traditional recommendations, is observed, that as a result of new scientific evidence should be update.