Articles in the last fortnight in the Daily Telegraph and in The Times have loudly proclaimed the virtues of drinking freshly ground coffee.

Joe Pinkstone, the Science Correspondent of the Telegraph led with

Three cups of ground coffee a day could keep the doctor away

The headline in The Times was

Splash out: fresh coffee is linked to longer life

Both papers were reporting on a newly published study which found that moderate consumption of freshly ground coffee was beneficial for the heart and lowers the risk of stroke.

Apparently drinking three cups of fresh coffee a day can help you live longer, but only if the beans are ground not instant. This level of light-to-moderate coffee consumption was found to be beneficial to the heart and may even slow down the ageing of the cardiovascular system.

But don't go crazy. More than three cups a day was linked to poorer health outcomes. Moderation in all things...

I am taking this as total vindication for my coffee snobbery. For many years now I have refused to drink the beverage known as "instant coffee". I've found that once you wean yourself off the instant stuff (plain, gold, or every other variety), you can never go back!

If decaf is your thing, be encouraged that the UK Biobank project also found that those who "regularly" opted for decaffeinated ground coffee had a lower risk of death compared with those who did not drink coffee at all. This is the only plausible reason I have ever identified for drinking decaffeinated coffee!

Nearly 470,000 people signed up for the experiment which revealed moderate coffee drinkers were 12 per cent less likely to die over the study's 11-year period. They were also 17 per cent less likely to die of heart disease and 21 per cent less likely to die from a stroke.

The research says, "The difference among the various coffee types may be explained by the differences in their production process, as they contain different chemicals." It concluded the benefits from coffee are only partly due to caffeine, with antioxidants and other chemicals likely playing a key role.

The Times pointed out that, "This kind of research cannot prove cause and effect. It may be that people who drink ground coffee also tend to be wealthier than average. It seems likely that they are more fastidious about other aspects of the diet. Other factors may help to explain their better health."

Alas, it is true, drinking freshly ground coffee at home is an expensive luxury. I am especially feeling the pain since my Italian espresso machine gave up the ghost recently after seventeen uninterrupted years of loyal service. Add to that, you need a decent coffee grinder and of course a regular supply of freshly roasted coffee beans. None of that is cheap. But I justify the spend to myself by acknowledging that I don't go to the gym (I fainted from over-exertion last time I did, which I took as an early-warning sign to leave that domain to others) nor do I eat out very frequently. Once you have enough money for discretionary purchases, you do tend to spend it on those things that you really value.

When are you going to stop drinking instant coffee? Do any of the constant flow of health studies change your habits one bit?