A popular morning beverage could do more than provide a perk - it could also help women stay healthy as they age.
That's according to new research from Harvard University, which followed a group of nearly 50,000 women from the Nurses' Health Study for a 30-year period.
The researchers found that drinking coffee every morning could help women stay mentally sharp and physically strong later in life, according to a press release from the American Society of Nutrition.
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The benefits were seen in middle-aged women who drank caffeinated coffee. Decaf coffee and tea did not have the same effect.
"'Healthy aging' here meant surviving to older age without major chronic diseases and with good physical, mental and cognitive function," Dr. Sara Mahdavi, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, told Fox News Digital.
"Importantly, this relationship persisted even after accounting for key lifestyle factors like diet quality, physical activity and smoking - each of which are also strongly associated with healthy aging in their own right."
The women who qualified as "healthy agers" were found to consume an average of 315 mg of caffeine daily, primarily via coffee-drinking.
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Each additional cup of coffee was linked to a 2% to 5% greater chance of healthier aging, the study found.
Although soda also contains caffeine, people who drank it every day were shown to have a 20% to 26% reduced chance of healthy aging.
"The health benefits appeared specific to coffee, rather than caffeine more broadly," Mahdavi noted. "We didn't see the same associations with decaf coffee, tea or caffeinated soda - suggesting that coffee's unique combination of bioactive compounds may play a key role."
The findings were set to be presented on Monday at NUTRITION 2025, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition held in Orlando.
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"While past studies have linked coffee to individual health outcomes, our study is the first to assess coffee's impact across multiple domains of aging over three decades," said Mahdavi.
"The findings suggest that caffeinated coffee … may uniquely support aging trajectories that preserve both mental and physical function."
The researcher acknowledged that the study has some limitations.
"As with all observational studies, we cannot establish causality," she told Fox News Digital. "While we adjusted for many factors, unmeasured confounding is always possible."
Mahdavi also pointed out that the study group mostly included white, educated female health professionals.
"Further work is needed to confirm generalizability to broader populations."
Coffee's benefits are "relatively modest" compared to the benefits of overall healthy lifestyle habits, according to the researcher.
"These results, while preliminary, suggest that small, consistent habits can shape long‑term health," said Mahdavi. "Moderate coffee intake may offer some protective benefits when combined with other healthy behaviors, such as regular exercise, a healthy diet and avoiding smoking."
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"We don't recommend starting coffee if you don't already drink it or if you're sensitive to caffeine," she went on. "But for people who already consume moderate amounts - typically two to four cups per day - this study adds to the evidence that coffee can be part of a healthy lifestyle."
Mahdavi emphasized, however, that nutrition, regular exercise and not smoking are the "most powerful and proven contributors" to healthy aging.
The team is now planning to explore how coffee's bioactive compounds - particularly polyphenols and antioxidants - might influence molecular aging pathways, including inflammation, metabolism and vascular health, Mahdavi said.
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"Genetic and hormonal differences may also shape how individuals respond, which could pave the way for more personalized guidance in the future."
