Health - Italian Coffee Might Cut Prostate Cancer Risk

Drinking more than three cups of Italian-style coffee a day may reduce prostate cancer risk by more than 50 percent, according to a study of around 7,000 Italian men.

Italian coffee is prepared differently that other parts of the world: "High pressure, very high water temperature and with no filters," said Licia Iacoviello, head of the Molecular and Nutritional Epidemiology Laboratory at the Neuromed Institute in Pozzilli, Italy.

Italians typically drink more than 600 cups of coffee per year (.pdf link).  It's not uncommon for Italians to start the day with with a cappuccino, followed by a caffe macchiato or two at lunch, and an espresso in the evening.

And it appears that the main reason why many people drink coffee - the caffeine - is a key part of why it works:

"The observations on cancer cells allow us to say that the beneficial effect observed among the 7,000 participants is most likely due to caffeine, rather than to the many other substances contained in coffee," said Maria Benedetta Donati from Institute for Research, Hospitalisation and Health Care (I.R.C.C.S.) Neuromed in Pozzilli, Italy.