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Long Live the Coffee Drinker: Why You Shouldn't Feel Bad for Being a Coffee Addict A new report from the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee suggests that three to five cups of coffee is good for your heart.

By Catherine Clifford

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Padurariu Alexandru | Stocksnap

Ok, I admit it: I love coffee.

I love the smell, I love the ritual of making it and I love that it wakes me up. I am notorious here at Entrepreneur's New York office for drinking coffee all the time. (Indeed, my colleagues know not to talk to me before I have had my first cup in the morning.) So, full disclosure, part of the reason I wanted to write this story is to protect my own ego -- and get the rest of the office off my back when I go for my third cup in the afternoon.

Alas, truth is here! Coffee is not the Evil Ill that Grand Proprietors of Health like to profess while they are making their organic, herbal tea. In fact, drinking three to five cups of coffee per day is actually good for your heart, according to a new report from the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. That's a report authored by a group of highly regarded scientists, with more letters after their names than in them, who assemble the latest scientific knowledge and present it to federal regulatory agencies.

Related: Can't Sleep? This Coffee Should Do the Trick. (Yes, We Said Coffee.)

Ah, the clouds part, the angels sing, and glory is forever mine!

But seriously, coffee is a controversial subject. We here at Entrepreneur tend to write about it often, as our readers are round-the-clock workers who are always looking for ways to increase their productivity. (When we published a story scorning caffeine as a productivity tool, the tea-drinkers puffed their chests and had a good time scoffing at the lowly coffee drinkers.)

Related: How Your Daily Caffeine Fix Is a Silent Killer of Success

And so I add to the cacophony of how to be your best, most productive self by cheering a trip to the coffee room. The report says that there has been "consistent evidence" to indicate that coffee drinking adults tend to have lower risks of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Coffee drinking is also a buffer against Parkinson's disease, according to the report.

To be fair, the report also says that excessive calories coming from cream and sugar that is usually put into coffee is never good. Harumph. I like my coffee sweet, so I am putting this note at the very bottom of my story. I want to leave it off, but journalistic integrity got the best of me. I must be thorough and report all sides of the story. So, there you are, office mates, you are free to scorn me for the cream in my coffee, but not the coffee itself.

Haters gonna hate. Now, stop yapping and go get me another coffee.

Related: OMG Yes: A Smart Mattress Cover That Can Brew Your Morning Coffee

Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

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