More proof for God: Coffee builds muscle and bone!

Yes, God is good.

A new European Journal of Nutrition study of 2,264 middle-aged Finnish adults found that people who drank more coffee tended to have more skeletal muscle, less total body fat, and less visceral fat, even though BMI was similar across coffee-intake groups. The researchers described the pattern simply: “Higher coffee intake groups showed lower total and visceral fat and higher skeletal muscle mass, while BMI was comparable across groups.”

That contrast may be the most intriguing part of the research. Average BMI barely moved across the groups, ranging from 26.79 among the highest coffee consumers to 27.17 among non-consumers. Body composition told a different story.

Those drinking at least five cups daily averaged 27.14 percent body fat and 32.46 kilograms of skeletal muscle, compared with 29.67 percent body fat and 30.88 kilograms of muscle among non-consumers. Visceral fat area was also lower in the highest-intake group.

Researchers wrote that the findings “suggest that regular coffee drinkers exhibited a lower adiposity profile despite similar BMI,” highlighting why body weight alone can miss meaningful differences in muscle and fat.