Tip: Drink 3-4 Cups of Coffee Per Day

Coffee is a little mysterious in that we're not really sure how it does some of the things it does. Coffee has over 1000 biologically active compounds after all. One thing seems for certain, though: the more you drink, the better off you are. In fact, the more you drink, the longer you live.

In a 2012 mortality study of 400,000 people printed in The New England Journal of Medicine, coffee drinkers had between 6 and 16 percent fewer deaths. Likewise, in a Japanese study printed in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, coffee drinkers were 24 percent less likely to die during a 19-year follow-up.

The sweet spot seems to be three to four cups a day of regular or decaf, but one study involving six cups a day saw a 33 percent reduction in diabetes diagnoses. Other maladies positively affected by coffee include liver cancers, fatty livers, alcoholic liver disease, heart disease, stroke, depression, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's.

Of course, drinking very, very large amounts may actually reverse some of the beneficial effects. As with most things, moderate amounts seem to work best.