Coffee Consumption and Circulating B-Vitamins in Healthy Middle-Aged Men and Women

BACKGROUND: Coffee consumption has been associated with several risk factors for coronary heart disease, in-cluding increased cholesterol, increased blood pres-sure, and increased plasma total homocysteine (tHcy). tHcy is determined by several B-vitamins. However, reports about the association between coffee intake and B-vitamin status are few. METHODS: We measured plasma B-vitamins and tHcy in a cohort of 10 601 healthy, middle-aged Norwegian men and women. Information about lifestyle factors, including coffee consumption, smoking, alcohol use, height, and weight, was obtained by interview. RESULTS: Coffee consumption was dose-dependently associated with reduced plasma B-vitamin concentra-tions. Compared with coffee abstainers, individual