this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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here's the study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032725024346
all the co-authors are Chinese and the main author is associated with:
They don't seem to disclose who funded the study, they claim the funders did not influence the design of the study, but then they also claim they did not have any specific grants from any public, private, non-profit, etc. sources.
The study just analyzes an existing data set, and all it does is show the same J-shaped curve that is commonly found with many things, e.g. the same thing they found in this study with coffee consumption is found with alcohol consumption:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2443580
tl;dr it's not that it's healthy to drink a couple drinks a day, or to drink a few cups of coffee a day; it's more like because the average person consumes that much alcohol or coffee, the data we have is skewed and the outliers who fully abstain or over-indulge also happen to have worse health outcomes
being average is what is being tracked here, not that moderate alcohol consumption actually improves health outcomes
this is like the finding that any running no matter the mileage or time spent running massively improves health outcomes - that's based on correlation studies that found people who identify as runners tend to be more healthy (because being a runner is associated with people who have higher income, better access to healthcare, etc. - not because running an insignificant amount actually massively improves your health).
This is a science and medicine communication issue. The take-away is absolutely not that drinking 2 - 3 cups of coffee is better for your mental health.