Instant coffee was linked with slightly faster biological ageing on the same measures.
Filtered coffee and instant coffee showed different patterns.
Higher instant coffee intake was linked with higher biological age acceleration and shorter telomere length.
It cannot prove filtered coffee slows ageing or instant coffee speeds it up.
Filtered coffee was linked with a better biological ageing marker profile than instant coffee.
A UK Biobank study found filtered coffee was linked with more favourable biological ageing markers.
Instant coffee was linked with slightly faster biological ageing on the same measures.
The study cannot prove either type of coffee causes ageing changes, but it suggests preparation method may matter.
Coffee is often discussed as if all cups are equal.
A new UK Biobank analysis suggests the type of coffee may matter.
Researchers looked at more than 49,000 participants and compared coffee habits with three biological ageing measures.
These included telomere length and two biological age acceleration scores based on clinical and biochemical markers.
Filtered coffee and instant coffee showed different patterns.
Filtered coffee was associated with lower biological age acceleration and generally longer telomere length.
That points towards a more favourable ageing profile.
Instant coffee showed the opposite pattern.
Higher instant coffee intake was linked with higher biological age acceleration and shorter telomere length.
The effects were not huge.
The authors noted that the instant coffee estimates were generally equivalent to only around 0.1 to 0.2 years of age acceleration, which is marginal for an individual.
Still, the direction of the findings is interesting.
The difference may relate to how coffee is processed, brewed and consumed, or to the different people who choose different types of coffee.
The researchers adjusted for many factors, including age, sex, education, deprivation, smoking, alcohol intake, BMI, physical activity, additives in coffee and several health conditions.
Even so, residual confounding is still possible.
This was also a cross-sectional study.
That means it looked at coffee intake and ageing markers at one point in time.
It cannot prove filtered coffee slows ageing or instant coffee speeds it up.
The better conclusion is measured.
Filtered coffee was linked with a better biological ageing marker profile than instant coffee.
That is not enough to rewrite dietary guidelines, but it does challenge the assumption that coffee type is irrelevant.
For people who already drink coffee, switching from instant to filtered may be a small, low-effort choice.
But the bigger foundations of healthy ageing remain diet quality, movement, sleep, blood pressure, smoking and metabolic health.
No cup of coffee outweighs those.
