Drinking three to four cups of coffee a day is associated with health benefits across a range of diseases and conditions, according to researchers.

The researchers found that drinking three cups of coffee a day was associated with the greatest benefit in terms of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke, when compared with not drinking coffee.

Coffee drinking is also associated with lower risk of some cancers, diabetes, liver disease and dementia.

The researchers carried out an umbrella review of 201 different studies and aggregated the data in this new report.

Drinking coffee was consistently associated with a lower risk of death from all causes and from heart disease, with the largest reduction in relative risk of death at three cups a day, compared with non-coffee drinkers.

Increasing consumption to above three cups a day was not associated with harm, but the beneficial effect was less pronounced.

Coffee was also associated with a lower risk of several cancers, including prostate, endometrial, skin and liver cancer, as well as type 2 diabetes, gallstones and gout. The greatest benefit was seen for liver conditions, such as cirrhosis of the liver.

Finally, there seemed to be beneficial associations between coffee consumption and Parkinson's disease, depression and Alzheimer's disease.

Read the full report.

How much coffee do you drink per day? Does this latest research encourage you to start drinking more coffee?