Drinking coffee could help you live longer: What to eat and drink for a healthy heart

Believe it or not, up to five cups of coffee a day could be good for your heart’s health. Peta Bee discovers what we should be eating and drinking to protect our most vital organ, and it makes for tasty reading

Coffee drinkers were at an eight percent lower risk of dying early even if they only consumed one cup a day.

What and how you eat can protect your heart. Researchers have shown that diet influences the risk of heart disease and that changing the foods we consume could help to cut the 8,744 deaths – more than half (4,612) of whom were men - from heart disease and stroke that the Central Statistics Office recorded last year.

Yet confusion reigns about which foods really help to lower blood pressure and cholesterol and reduce heart disease risk. So, what do cardiology experts say are the foodstuffs that most improve heart health? Here we investigate – and some of the results may surprise you.